Top scorers:
Vault: Denasiha Christian 9.850
Bars: Jordyn Penny 9.825
Beam: Jessica Leko 9.800
Floor: Denasiha Christian 9.850
A record breaking crowd of 1,564 people came to watch the Ball State gymnastics team compete against the University of Florida, the two-time defending national champion, Sunday in its first meet of the season.
Despite the hype from the crowd, the Gators defeated the Cardinals by a score of 196.925 to 193.700.
“It was an amazing experience to have that big team here and know that they’ve brought in a crowd like this,” head coach Joanna Saleem said. “We really use that as an opportunity to expose ourselves to the crowd and bring in a lot of fans to be able to show them what we are doing here. But other than that it’s any other team. We’re going to go out and do our job.”
The meet began with the vault and bar competition. On the vault, Ball State scored a 48.70, the 12th best score in school history. Junior Denasiha Christian was the top finisher for the Cardinals in fourth with a 9.875.
After the first two events, the adjoining gym was opened up so spectators were able to fill in all sides of Irving gym.
Christian said having the added crowd contributed to the excitement, but it didn’t make a big difference in the meet. Experience blocked out any intimidation factor, she added.
When Christian first came in as a freshman, she said some people didn’t know there was a gymnastics team.
“You’re just like ‘oh my goodness,’” she said. “With Florida being here, that definitely brought a lot [of fans]. What we were hoping was to give them a good show so the people that came for Florida would want to come back for us.”
Ball State also received a nice contribution from freshman Jordyn Penny, who was two all-around competitors in the meet and placed second with a 37.775 in her first collegiate meet.
Although the Cardinals suffered their first team defeat of the season, Saleem said the first meet was more about being consistent and confident.
“You want to make sure you’re representing yourself well and making sure you’re putting out there what you’re ready to do and then you build throughout the season,” she said. “We don’t want to do our best gymnastics ever the first meet of the season, because we’re not ready to put in necessarily all of the top skills that we have.”
Saleem also said the team started preparing sooner in the pre-season than they would have ordinarily so they would be able to see where some of their routines matched up against Florida's.
“Coming from how we did at the inter-squad, I think it’s exactly how we wanted to start,” Christian said.
Ball State will compete again Jan. 18 on the road at Iowa, in a meet that will also include Michigan State.
Kaitlin Lange contributed to this story.
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