Temple University gymnastics (11-11, 1-0 Eastern College Athletic Conference) finished third in Sunday’s Terrapin Invitational with a total score of 194.1. The University of Maryland (10-6, 3-6 Big Ten Conference) placed first, Yale University (13-6, 6-4 ECAC) earned second, the College of William & Mary (5-12, 2-6 ECAC) took fourth, and Penn (8-9, 6-7 ECAC) placed fifth.
“The team effort overall was just a good effort,” coach Josh Nilson said. “We had a couple mistakes but the team pulled together and worked through it.”
Temple began the competition on vault where they set a season-high and program record score of 49.15. Sophomore Ariana Castrence tied her career-high on the event with a 9.875 to place second overall. Seniors Jaylene Everett and Jazmyn Estrella both tallied season-high scores of 9.85 and placed third in the event.
“We had a full-strength vault lineup, so we had five-way-fold which allowed Ari to actually do her upgraded vault,” Nilson said. “So a lot of work is going to that over really the whole year.”
The Owls posted their second-highest score of the season on bars with a 48.75. Estrella notched a 9.875 in the event which was a team-high score as she tied for third with Terrapins senior Alecia Farina. Castrence recorded a 9.825 for the second-best score on the team.
Temple competed on beam in the third rotation, posting a 47.6. Junior captain Delaney Garin recorded a team-high 9.75 in the event and Castrence notched a 9.7.
“Really the biggest thing is, we just need to stay loose, you know we went into beam and we just got a little tight,” Nilson said. “So we’re just going to work on staying loose and staying a little bit more mentally into it this week and we’ll be just fine going into our back-to-back at home.”
The Owls ended the competition on floor with a score of 48.6. Castrence tied her career-high with a 9.85 and tied for second place in the event. Junior Tori Edwards earned a 9.775 and Everett posted a score of 9.725.
“We have a couple people that I don’t think give enough praise,” Nilson said. “You know one of them being Tori Edwards, you know she got Coach’s Choice in the ECAC last week but [she] just keeps on being a steady kid for us. You know she doesn’t get a whole lot of praise and she keeps doing what she needs to do.”
Castrence scored an overall score of 39.25 to earn her fourth all-around title of the 2020 season.
Temple will return home for Alumni Night to face Bowling Green State University (8-9, 0-5 Mid-American Conference) and Penn on Friday, Mar. 6 at McGonigle Hall.
“We’re anxious to get home for sure,” Nilson said. “We’ve been looking forward to this weekend for a long time. So the girls are tired, you know traveling is tough, especially you know back to back on the road. So the girls are very excited, we’re excited to be back in our home arena.”
Be the first to comment