The College at Brockport's women's gymnastics squad traveled to Ithaca College for a quad meet and placed second, beating Division I power Yale University while falling just shy of host Ithaca.
Brockport head coach John Feeney said it's the first time in school history that the Golden Eagles have beaten a DI school in gymnastics. The Golden Eagles scored 184.150 points, second only to Ithaca's 184.750. Yale (179.5) finished third while Rhode Island College (155.575) was fourth.
“That's the first time we've ever beaten a Division I school in the history of gymnastics here at Brockport,” said Feeney of a Brockport program that's been around since the 1975 season.
“I'm very happy with how we performed. We scored 14 more points than we did last week (during the season-opener at Cortland). This meet was huge for us, we're so young, we lost 16 routines from last year out of 24 total, so that's a huge percentage of our routines that we lost. This gives these girls the confidence that, if they keep working hard, they will do better than they thought they would this year.”
Among the highlights for the Golden Eagles: junior Kileigh Chapman (Gansevoort , NY/South Glens Falls) captured the balance beam with a score of 9.6 and senior Kaitlin Dewey (Saratoga, NY/Saratoga Springs) won the vault with a score of 9.625 points. Sophomore Taryn Kateridge (Medford, NY/Patchogue-Medford) finished second on the vault with a personal-best score of 9.575 points while senior Amanda Giannone (Vestal, NY/Vestal) also recorded a personal-best in the beam, scoring 9.525 for a third-place finish. Kateridge also tied for third on the floor with a personal-best score of 9.625.
As a team, Brockport won the vault with a score of 47.2, and finished second in the bars (43.75), the floor exercise (46.5) and the balance beam (46.7).
“I was impressed with our work ethic in practice, and it paid off for us today in the meet,” Feeney said. I'm more than happy with my team's performance. They fought and competed very well against some quality gymnasts. Taryn and Amanda each had excellent meets for us. Amanda went first for us on the beam, and you always want to pick someone who won't fall as your first athlete on the beam. Amanda attacked the beam like an animal, and her score was huge for her.”
Brockport returns home for the annual Brockport Invitational next Saturday, Jan. 22. The meet will feature Division I power Cornell University, along with Southern Connecticut (DII) and Springfield College (DIII). Feeney said this will be the first time Brockport has ever hosted a DI school in gymnastics.
