For the second straight meet, sophomore Ivy Lu entered Minnesota’s record book.
Lu scored a perfect 10.000 on beam on Friday at the GymQuarters Invitational in St. Louis. She became the second Minnesota gymnast to achieve that feat. The other was Hanna Nordquist on March 12, 2016.
“The staff and the rest of our team were all chanting, ’10’ It was so beautiful,” head coach Jenny Hansen said.
Lu said she felt great about her team and then she looked at the Minnesota bench for its reaction.
“I was super proud of how I did,” Lu said. “Once the scores flashed out, the whole team was jumping. It was cool.”
Minnesota finished first at the 2018 GymQuarters Invitational, receiving a score of 195.725. Northern Illinois finished second, receiving a score of 195.025. Lindenwood finished in third place, receiving a score of 193.600.
Minnesota earned a score of 49.350 on bars. Lu finished first, earning a score of 9.975. She received that same score on Feb. 9 against Illinois. Senior Rachel Rowland and freshman Lexy Ramler both set career highs on bars.
Freshman Ona Loper finished first in the vault exercise, receiving a score of 9.900. Ramler finished second, tying her season-high score of 9.850. Senior Hannah Hitchcock finished third, receiving a score of 9.800.
Loper tied for first in the floor exercise, receiving a score of 9.850. The team earned a score of 48.475. Ramler finished second in the all-around, ending her streak of five consecutive all-around titles.
Hansen said she doesn’t want her team to ignore what it needs to improve.
“Beam and floor as a team did not go as well as we had hoped. We were disappointed with that,” Hansen said. “We know we’re very capable of doing extraordinary on those events. We’ve got to do [well on] all four events on the same night.”
Minnesota’s next meet will be in Ames, Iowa on Friday when the Gophers face Iowa State, Michigan State and the University of Wisconsin-Stout at 6:30 p.m. Hansen said she wants every meet to be a learning experience for the team.
“What we want to do is take the opportunity to learn and get better for next time,” Hansen said.
