Saturday, January 30
East Lansing, Mich.
2 PM ET
Michigan State University
195.775
vs
194.725
Tri-Meet w/ Nebraska and Ohio State
Photo by: Rey Del Rio/MSU Athletic Communications
Spartan Gymnastics Opens Season Winning Pink-Themed Tri-Meet With Nebraska and Ohio State
1/30/2021 8:03:00 PM | Women's Gymnastics
MSU sweeps all-around podium, as well as winning at least share of three out of the four events.
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Michigan State gymnastics opened the 2021 season in smashing, pink-themed glittery fashion Saturday afternoon, posting a 195.775 in winning the tri-meet with Nebraska and Ohio State at Jenison Field House in the Spartans' 15th Annual Jan Howard Breast Cancer Awareness pink meet.
MSU's 195.775 is the highest season-opener score in not only head coach Mike Rowe's tenure, but the highest opening score in program history. It is also the No. 28 score on the Spartans' team score list. Of the high scores in the country so far this season entering this weekend, Michigan State's 195.775 is the 24th-highest score.
"I'm just so happy and so excited about the win, and going 2-0 in the Big Ten right now, and just really, really happy we could do it in our home opener with such a great score," Rowe said.
No. 26 Ohio State was second with a 195.325, and ironically, the Buckeyes have been the Spartans' opponent for their Pink Meet each of the last three years. Nebraska, ranked No. 33, was third with a 194.725. Saturday's meet was originally scheduled for a dual between MSU and Nebraska, but added Ohio State after the Buckeyes' meet vs. Michigan originally scheduled for Saturday in Columbus was postponed due to the preventative COVID-19 measures at the University of Michigan.
Along with the home and 2021 season-opening meet, Saturday was MSU's 15th Annual Breast Cancer Awareness meet presented by Sparrow Health Systems is dedicated in memory of Jan Howard, mother of alumni gymnast (1990-1995) and current Director of Student-Athlete Development with MSU Athletics Student-Athlete Support Services, Angela Montie.
While the gymnastics meet is a wonderful tribute to Jan Howard, her family would like fans to honor her and to honor those survivors and everyone that has been touched by the dreaded disease and that is to raise awareness and early detection of breast cancer and ultimately find a cure.
"We were just really proud and humbled to honor Jan Howard's memory with our annual Breast Cancer Awareness meet. While we're sad that would couldn't have all our fans here and make it a big event like we have in the past, we're just glad that we could carry on the tradition of honoring Jan, and I could see her fighting spirit in our team today," Rowe said.
Saturday afternoon was MSU's first action in 329 days, as the Spartans last competed on March 7, 2020, after the later portion of the 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and last week's initial 2021 season-opener was postponed due to COVID-19 concerns.
"It was great to come out and compete today. After the delayed start to the season because of COVID and all the shutdowns and inconsistencies to our training, and this is just a sport you can't have inconsistent training, and you have to be able to have enough training anyway, so if it comes and goes and comes and goes it becomes a safety issue," Rowe said. "So with that being said, up until about a week ago, we were still wondering if we were going to even be able to put up full start values or have full lineups on certain events and everything and we were just a little hesitant as to, emphasizing that it's got to be safe, it's got to be safe, and this past week, these kids just every day kept bringing it and bringing it. I mean, it wasn't even baby steps, they were making giant steps in the past week, week-and-a-half, and really, really putting some good stuff out on the floor, and the confidence level rose every day and everything just started to get better and very exciting."
Michigan State showed little signs of any layoffs from competition, as MSU swept the all-around podium and captured or shared three of the four individual events.
Freshman Baleigh Garcia burst onto the scene in her Spartan debut, winning the all-around with a 39.300, as well as capturing the beam title with a 9.900, collecting both individual titles outright. Garcia's 39.300 in the all-around is just shy of MSU's top 10 individual all-around list, while her 9.900 on beam is tied for No. 24 on the Spartans' all-time beam list.
Senior Lea Mitchell shared the floor crown with a 9.875, collecting her 10th career floor top honor. Mitchell was joined by the Nebraska pair of Anika Dujakovich and Kaitlyn Higgins, and Ohio State's Alexis Hankins, atop the podium. Mitchell's 9.875 was also her 28th score of 9.800 in her Spartan career out of a total of 36 floor performances in her career.
Freshman Delanie Harkness won a share of the bars title with a 9.850, and was joined by Ohio State duo of Colby Miller and Jenna Swartzentruber, for the event win.
The Spartans swept the all-around, as behind Garcia, sophomore Nyah Smith was second with a 39.175 and Mitchell was third with a 39.025.
Smith tied for fourth on vault with a 9.800, and tied for fifth on floor with a 9.850, tying her personal-best. Also part of the three-way tie for fifth on floor was junior Ashley Hofelich, also with a 9.850.
Garcia and Harkness were two of six Spartan freshmen who made the debuts for MSU, along with Naomi German, Sydney Hayashi, Giana Kalefe and Isabella Barbacci.
"Going into today, we had six freshmen that haven't competed in a collegiate meet yet and it's our home opener, even though we don't have fans, we weren't sure how they'd do. You for sure get the first week jitters, everybody gets the first week jitters, even coaches and you don't know what you're going to get, and they came out, and you talk about grit, and just exuding confidence," Rowe said. "Our whole team just really knows how to bring it and we're just getting started."
Michigan State gymnastics will face Ohio State in back-to-back weekends, as the Spartans will head to Columbus next weekend for a dual on Sunday, Feb. 7 at 4 p.m.
MSU's 195.775 is the highest season-opener score in not only head coach Mike Rowe's tenure, but the highest opening score in program history. It is also the No. 28 score on the Spartans' team score list. Of the high scores in the country so far this season entering this weekend, Michigan State's 195.775 is the 24th-highest score.
"I'm just so happy and so excited about the win, and going 2-0 in the Big Ten right now, and just really, really happy we could do it in our home opener with such a great score," Rowe said.
1st meet of 2021💗#VictoryForMSU with a 195.775💚🤍
— MSU Gymnastics (@MSUgymnastics) January 31, 2021
Was a great 🎀𝒥𝒜𝒩 𝐻💟𝒲𝒜𝑅𝒟 𝐵𝑅𝐸𝒜𝒮𝒯 𝒞𝒜𝒩𝒞𝐸𝑅 𝒜𝒲𝒜𝑅𝐸𝒩𝐸𝒮𝒮 𝒫𝐼𝒩𝒦 𝑀𝐸𝐸𝒯🎀💖💖💖#GoGreen #WearPink pic.twitter.com/VLRsmGlxev
No. 26 Ohio State was second with a 195.325, and ironically, the Buckeyes have been the Spartans' opponent for their Pink Meet each of the last three years. Nebraska, ranked No. 33, was third with a 194.725. Saturday's meet was originally scheduled for a dual between MSU and Nebraska, but added Ohio State after the Buckeyes' meet vs. Michigan originally scheduled for Saturday in Columbus was postponed due to the preventative COVID-19 measures at the University of Michigan.
Along with the home and 2021 season-opening meet, Saturday was MSU's 15th Annual Breast Cancer Awareness meet presented by Sparrow Health Systems is dedicated in memory of Jan Howard, mother of alumni gymnast (1990-1995) and current Director of Student-Athlete Development with MSU Athletics Student-Athlete Support Services, Angela Montie.
While the gymnastics meet is a wonderful tribute to Jan Howard, her family would like fans to honor her and to honor those survivors and everyone that has been touched by the dreaded disease and that is to raise awareness and early detection of breast cancer and ultimately find a cure.
"We were just really proud and humbled to honor Jan Howard's memory with our annual Breast Cancer Awareness meet. While we're sad that would couldn't have all our fans here and make it a big event like we have in the past, we're just glad that we could carry on the tradition of honoring Jan, and I could see her fighting spirit in our team today," Rowe said.
Saturday afternoon was MSU's first action in 329 days, as the Spartans last competed on March 7, 2020, after the later portion of the 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and last week's initial 2021 season-opener was postponed due to COVID-19 concerns.
"It was great to come out and compete today. After the delayed start to the season because of COVID and all the shutdowns and inconsistencies to our training, and this is just a sport you can't have inconsistent training, and you have to be able to have enough training anyway, so if it comes and goes and comes and goes it becomes a safety issue," Rowe said. "So with that being said, up until about a week ago, we were still wondering if we were going to even be able to put up full start values or have full lineups on certain events and everything and we were just a little hesitant as to, emphasizing that it's got to be safe, it's got to be safe, and this past week, these kids just every day kept bringing it and bringing it. I mean, it wasn't even baby steps, they were making giant steps in the past week, week-and-a-half, and really, really putting some good stuff out on the floor, and the confidence level rose every day and everything just started to get better and very exciting."
Michigan State showed little signs of any layoffs from competition, as MSU swept the all-around podium and captured or shared three of the four individual events.
Freshman Baleigh Garcia burst onto the scene in her Spartan debut, winning the all-around with a 39.300, as well as capturing the beam title with a 9.900, collecting both individual titles outright. Garcia's 39.300 in the all-around is just shy of MSU's top 10 individual all-around list, while her 9.900 on beam is tied for No. 24 on the Spartans' all-time beam list.
Senior Lea Mitchell shared the floor crown with a 9.875, collecting her 10th career floor top honor. Mitchell was joined by the Nebraska pair of Anika Dujakovich and Kaitlyn Higgins, and Ohio State's Alexis Hankins, atop the podium. Mitchell's 9.875 was also her 28th score of 9.800 in her Spartan career out of a total of 36 floor performances in her career.
Freshman Delanie Harkness won a share of the bars title with a 9.850, and was joined by Ohio State duo of Colby Miller and Jenna Swartzentruber, for the event win.
The Spartans swept the all-around, as behind Garcia, sophomore Nyah Smith was second with a 39.175 and Mitchell was third with a 39.025.
Smith tied for fourth on vault with a 9.800, and tied for fifth on floor with a 9.850, tying her personal-best. Also part of the three-way tie for fifth on floor was junior Ashley Hofelich, also with a 9.850.
Garcia and Harkness were two of six Spartan freshmen who made the debuts for MSU, along with Naomi German, Sydney Hayashi, Giana Kalefe and Isabella Barbacci.
"Going into today, we had six freshmen that haven't competed in a collegiate meet yet and it's our home opener, even though we don't have fans, we weren't sure how they'd do. You for sure get the first week jitters, everybody gets the first week jitters, even coaches and you don't know what you're going to get, and they came out, and you talk about grit, and just exuding confidence," Rowe said. "Our whole team just really knows how to bring it and we're just getting started."
Michigan State gymnastics will face Ohio State in back-to-back weekends, as the Spartans will head to Columbus next weekend for a dual on Sunday, Feb. 7 at 4 p.m.
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