The Minnesota womenâÄôs gymnastics team was not on the top of its game Friday night. The Gophers were fairly distant from beating No. 10 Arkansas as they lost by a score of 195.250-196.350 to the Razorbacks. In their last away meet of the season, however, the women put up some solid routines while having fun at the same time. They werenâÄôt too concerned about where they were or who they were facing. âÄúWe donâÄôt really think about the type of meet weâÄôre going into, I think we just think about how to make it the best meet,âÄù senior captain Carmelina Carabajal said. Sophomore Kristen Furukawa started the meet off right on the bars, winning her fourth bars title of the season. Carabajal added the second title for the Gophers on the beam, tying for first with a 9.85 score. Furukawa placed third on the beam with a 9.825 score . These were the hold-steady events for the women. But in two events that the Gophers have struggled with, they excelled on Friday night. On vault, the women flourished, easily compiling a season best 48.85 score. Carabajal was again MinnesotaâÄôs top performer, but it was sophomore Jamie Bullock that impressed most. In her first time back on vault this season, Bullock turned in a career-high 9.825 score to tie for third place. Even though RazorbacksâÄô gymnasts took the top four floor spots, co-head coach Meg Stephenson was still thoroughly impressed with her teamâÄôs improvements on the two events âÄî even though they werenâÄôt great scoring events. âÄúSometimes the score doesnâÄôt always reflect the performance,âÄù Stephenson said. Carabajal was also impressed with improvements. After watching film this weekend, she spoke on differences and improvements from earlier in the season. âÄúWeâÄôre looking a lot better than we did at the beginning of the year and I think weâÄôre going to look better at the end of the year,âÄù Carabajal said. On Saturday night, Minnesota menâÄôs gymnastics hosted the best in the country. Minnesota, however, had some unfortunate events on the pommel horse, rings and high bar that prevented the Gophers from coming within striking distance of the top two teams in the country. Minnesota scored a 347.950 and watched No. 2 Oklahoma upset No. 1 Stanford in a hyped and televised meet resembling the NCAAs. âÄúIt definitely gave us a great feel of what itâÄôs going to be like when we host the NCAAs,âÄù senior captain Kit Beikmann said. The Gophers werenâÄôt completely satisfied with their performance Saturday night. But, according to coach Mike Burns, they have some time to fix the things that arenâÄôt unfixable. âÄúWeâÄôre still not quite where we want to be, but IâÄôm not at all getting into any kind of a panic mode,âÄù Burns said.
Minnesota falls to Arkansas on the road
Published March 8, 2009
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