Rutgers captures 2 wins over weekend with back-to-back scores of 195
The Rutgers gymnastics team won both of its meets over the weekend with back-to-back scores of 195. The Scarlet Knights hosted a tri-meet at the Gymnasium on the College Avenue campus, posting a score of 195.625 in the win against Southern Connecticut State and Cornell on Friday.
Following its first place finish, Rutgers traveled to Durham, New Hampshire, to capture a 195.900 victory over New Hampshire, No. 15 Auburn and Central Michigan on Sunday. The win marks the Knights’ highest road win score in program history and their first time upsetting a ranked team this season.
Home Sweet Home — New Brunswick, New Jersey
With its 195 performances last weekend, Rutgers claimed its first back-to-back team scores above 195 since 2016.
Easily sweeping all the event titles, the Knights claimed a top finish on bars, a top-two finish on beam, a top-three finish on vault and a top-five finish on floor. True freshman Hannah Joyner collected a win on bars with a career-high score of 9.900, marking the first time she reached a 9.900 in two events this season.
Senior Erin McLachlan (9.850) and junior Belle Huang (9.775) took the top two spots on beam. Senior Kaitlyn Hall (9.850), Huang (9.825) and Joyner (9.800) sealed the top three spots on vault for a team score of 48.950. Hall has dominated vault this season, claiming her fourth event win on Friday.
If there was any moment where the Rutgers gymnasts showed that they trained alongside each other day in and day out, this was it. Huang won floor with a 9.850, while four Knights — true freshmen trio Jenna Ferguson, Jordyn Duffield and Joyner, as well as junior Toni Williams — posted identical scores of 9.800 across the board.
Joyner and Huang captured the top two scores in all-around with respective scores of 39.225 and 39.150.
Riding the Wave — Durham, New Hampshire
Following its win at home, Rutgers repeated yet another first-place performance to reset its highest road win score and post its fourth highest team score in the program's history.
What is especially eye-opening about this win is the caliber of talent the Knights were able to display against the Tigers, who posted a team score of 195.825. Auburn has hit the 196 mark six times this season, which is something Rutgers hasn't done at all.
On floor, Huang repeated her routine from a couple days before to post another 9.850. Joyner recorded a 9.825 to tie for third in the event.
Vault saw Hall come in second with a 9.875, in addition to a tie for sixth between Williams and Joyner, who both recorded scores of 9.775.
Claiming its highest event score of the season on bars, the Knights had a trio, Joyner, sophomore Abigail Karolewski and senior Shannon Farrell, record a 9.850 for seventh. Even though Rutgers wasn’t high in the standings compared to its competitors, it had the most consistent lineup to total an event score of 49.150.
The Knights continued to keep the ball rolling all the way through to their last event. Rutgers finished competition with the second highest beam score in history, besting its 49.200 set at the beginning of the semester. Clinching the meet with a 49.250 on beam, Joyner won the event with a 9.900. Sophomore Kiera Doherty-Herwitz, Huang and McLachlan also put on strong performances to have matching scores of 9.850.
Joyner and Huang claimed the top two spots in all-around with scores of 39.350 and 39.200, respectively. Tied for fourth in the program, Joyner inches closer to the Knights’ top all-around score of 39.500 set back in 2013 by Luisa Leal.
"We are so proud of how the team competed this weekend. They used the momentum from Friday's meet to propel them today," said head coach Umme Salim-Beasley after Sunday's competition. "They were so determined to go out and show what they could do against some tough competition."
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