Feb. 20, 2016
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State women's gymnastics team tallied a 195.100 to finish third Saturday afternoon inside Rec Hall against No. 4 Alabama, Cornell and No. 13 Denver. No. 4 Alabama won the meet with a 197.300 followed by No. 13 Denver (196.350) and Cornell finished fourth in the meet with a 191.000.
"It was a great environment with tons and tons of people here and lots of kids," head coach Jeff Thompson said. "We got to a great start and unfortunately we had a few uncharacteristic mistakes, whether it was the size of the crowd or the level of the competition."
Junior Kiera Brown (Newport News, Va.) led the Nittany Lion contingent on the day with a career-best 39.400 to finish third in the all-around. For her career-best performance, Brown received the Ann Carr Award. On the day, Brown posted three top-five finishes.
The Nittany Lions opened the meet with a season-best 48.950 on the vault, followed by a 48.950 on the uneven bars. Penn State hit a 48.850 on the balance beam and closed out the meet on the floor exercise with a 48.350.
Penn State got the day started with a pair of top-10 finishes on the vault from Briannah Tsang (Vancouver, British Columbia) and Brown. Tsang finished tied for third with her 9.850 and Brown hit a 9.825 to finish tied for seventh.
Brown went on to lead the Nittany Lions on the uneven bars with her score of 9.875 (tied for fifth), while freshman Sabrina Garcia (Etters, Pa.) hit a 9.850 to tie for eighth.
Junior Nicole Medvitz (Paramus, N.J.) captured her first balance beam title of the season with a career-best 9.900. Her balance beam title Saturday was the fourth of her Nittany Lion career. Brown added to her career-day with a 9.850 on the balance beam (tied for fourth).
Penn State closed out the competition with a pair of Nittany Lions tying for fourth on the floor exercise. Brown and sophomore Oni Timothy (Rochester, N.Y.) each posted a score of 9.850 to lead the Nittany Lions on the apparatus. Tsang finished the day tied for 10th on the floor exercise (9.800) and ended the meet with 39.200 to finish fourth in the all-around.
The Nittany Lions return to Big Ten action Monday in College Park, Md., against Maryland. The meet is slated for a 7 p.m. start inside the XFINITY Center.