MSU gymnastics drops home meet to Penn State
Michigan State hosted its annual Jan Howard Breast Cancer Awareness meet on Saturday afternoon at Jenison Field House, but despite the team’s second-best overall score of the season, the Spartans were edged by Penn State, 195.700-195.175. Senior Lisa Burt captured the All-Around title, and teammate Nicola Deans posted three scores of 8.500 or better on the day.
“I’m really so pleased with our team performance today,” said head coach Kathie Klages. “We overcame a couple of bars mistakes and really rocked in our performances in both beam and on floor. I think that what we’re most happy with is that we saw performances today that we’ve been seeing in the practice gym. That should give our athletes the confidence that they deserve to have."
MSU opened with a 48.600 team score on vault, it’s second-highest effort of the season. Nicola Deans led MSU with a 9.800, just off her 9.850 season-best she posted in the quad meet a week ago. Elena Lagoski was second among Spartans with a 9.775, and Lisa Burt, Anna Gamelo, and Roya Shirley each posted identical 9.675 scores. Brittany Holmes, who was MSU’s exhibition performer, posted a 9.700, which would have been her career high. The Nittany Lions edged MSU with a 48.750 team score, as Emma Sibson won the event with a 9.825 and Briannah Tsang tied with Deans for second place (9.800).
Three Spartans posted season-best scores on bars, helping MSU to a 48.475 as a team. Deans followed up her strong vault performance with a season-best 9.850, just shy of her career-high 9.900. Kira Frederick followed with a season-best mark of 9.825, which was just shy of her career mark of a 9.850 as well. Freshman Jessica Ling came up with a 9.775, and Lisa Burt anchored MSU with a 9.875 for an overall second-place finish on the day and a season-best mark. Penn State won the event with a team score of 49.200 with first-place finisher Kiera Brown scoring a 9.900 and Burt and Deans took second and third, respectively.
The Spartans tied their season-best score on beam with a 48.875 behind individual season bests from Lisa Burt(9.850) and Elena Lagoski (9.825). Nicola Deans had a 9.850, continuing her strong day and tying with Burt for the team lead, and both Ashley Noll and Victoria Huehn posted scores of 9.700. Penn State edged MSU with a 49.000 on the apparatus, led by Kiera Brown’s 9.900; Burt was second while Lagoski and Deans finished in a tie for third.
The final event of the day for the Spartans was MSU’s strongest, floor exercise. MSU’s athletes posted five consecutive season-best scores to post a team 49.225, the Spartans’ top team floor score of the season, which is tied for 20th all-time in the MSU annals. Fifth-year senior Ashley Noll impressed with a 9.800, freshman Hendershot put up a 9.825, and Lisa Burt and Kira Frederick each earned a 9.850. Anchor Elena Lagoski’s 9.900 wrapped up MSU’s scoring on the day, as Lagoski took first place and Burt and Frederick tied for second. MSU’s team score was the best since March 9, 2008 vs. New Hampshire. The Nittany Lions scored 48.750 as a team, as the Spartans took six of the top seven scores in the event on the day.
Burt claimed the All-Around crown with a score of 39.250, her season-best in the All-Around competition. Kiera Brown took second with a 39.200, and teammate Sabrina Garcia finished third with a 38.900. It was the second All-Around title of the season for the senior from Port Orange, Florida and the ninth in her career.
MSU is in action next Sunday (Feb. 14) when it travels down the road to No. 1 Michigan for a meet which begins at 2 p.m. at Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor.
-MSU athletic communications