After scoring their season-low team total in losses against Maryland and Pittsburgh, the No. 6 Gophers gymnastics team took third place in the Big Five Meet Saturday evening with 196.500, their second-lowest team score this season, behind No. 14 Michigan State (196.975) and Nebraska (196.750) and ahead of Penn State (196.125) and Rutgers (195.475).
“We started off great on floor. I’m just really proud of the way we started there. We just weren’t quite on tonight. Our vault was a little bit off and our bars was ok,” Gophers head coach Jenny Hansen said. “We weren’t quite as sharp as we normally are. On beam, we definitely had some highlights but then had some uncharacteristic mistakes from some of our leaders. Everyone is able to make mistakes sometimes, but unfortunately, we had two in the same night. It was disappointing because we knew we certainly could have won this meet.”
Although fifth-year Lexy Ramler produced a 9.950 on beam, Minnesota’s beam team struggled as a unit for a second-consecutive meet, totaling 48.650.
There were two routines with costly mistakes, one coming from fifth-year Ona Loper, who scored an abnormal 9.200, and senior Tiarre Sales, who made her season debut on beam, scoring 9.275.
Along with the struggling beam team, the Gophers’ vault and bars teams produced matching 49.150s. The scores mark a season-low for the vault team and the second-lowest score for the bars team of the season.
Ramler led the way on both apparatuses for Minnesota as she earned matching 9.875s. The super senior took home the all-around title between the five teams after totaling 39.575. She also won the beam title with a score of 9.950 and rounded out her night with another 9.875 on vault.
Freshman Marissa Jencks competed on vault for the third time in her collegiate career and scored a career-best 9.825.
Coming into Saturday’s meet, Minnesota’s floor team ranked No. 2 in the nation, showing why in Toledo as they produced 49.550. The total ties for the fifth-best team score in program history.
Sophomore Mya Hooten highlighted the team performance. She continues to dazzle on floor, where she produced a 9.975 to win the event title and increase her season-average score to 9.963. She rounded out her evening by adding 9.850 on vault and 9.825 on bars.
Alongside Hooten, two other floor routines scored over 9.900 as junior Halle Remlinger and Loper’s routines earned matching 9.925s. Remlinger tied her career-best with the score.
The sophomore trio of Hooten, Gianna Gerdes and Emily Koch were bright spots in the meet as they combined for 78.725 points across eight routines.
Gerdes, who has seen an increased role for the Gophers throughout the season, competed on bars, beam and vault for a second-consecutive meet. She scored a career-best on beam with a 9.850 while matching that score on the floor and added 9.825 on vault.
Alongside Hooten and Gerdes on floor and Gerdes on beam, Koch produced 9.800 and 9.750, respectively.
“They did a great job. Mya was fantastic on all of her events. Emily was solid. Gianna is really stepping up. She’s been really important for us these last few meets,” Hansen said. “We’ve seen this potential in Gianna for so long, so it’s been nice for her to shine and really show everybody what she’s capable of.”
The Gophers will look to get back on track when they host No. 17 Iowa on Friday, Feb. 25, at 4:30 p.m. at Maturi Pavilion.
