Feb. 25, 2017
By Anita Nham, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- At the beginning of each meet, the Penn State women's gymnastics team does a spirited "P-S-U" cheer to get themselves energized and ready for competition.
On Saturday afternoon, seniors Nicole Medvitz, Christina Postiglione, and Emma Sibson were the three loudest gymnasts in the group huddle. This is because it was a special meet for each of them - it would be their final meet to cap off their time at historic Rec Hall.
"I thought we did great today," Medvitz said. "We came out here and it wasn't our best vaulting rotation, but we went to bars and we stuck so many dismounts. The energy was so high and we took that to each event. It was probably the most fun meet I ever had."
It was the final home meet of the season and each Nittany Lion delivered a strong and heartwarming performance in their 195.200-193.525 win against Pittsburgh.
For Medvitz, it was a meet that she will never forget. The Paramus, N.J. native opened up the meet by performing her last routine on vault in Rec Hall. She finished with a 9.575 to place tenth. But on the next event, the uneven parallel bars, she delivered a great score of 9.825 to place third.
"Nicole [Medvitz] on bars, she was lights out tonight," interim co-head coach Josh Nilson said. "That's what we see in the gym, and it was absolutely fantastic. [I'm] very proud of her."
From there, she excelled on her final event of the evening, balance beam. Medvitz performed a near flawless performance to place first with a 9.875.
"It feels great [to place with those scores]," Medvitz said. "I always love when I can help my team out in any way that I can, and just to end on a great note, it feels amazing."
Since her freshman year, Medvitz has competed in every one of Penn State's meets, minus one during her sophomore year. Normally she simply goes through each event, but Saturday evening was different.
"It was pretty crazy just thinking that it's my last time walking in [Rec Hall] and my last time competing, but I just wanted to enjoy every moment, look around and take some extra time to just be grateful for what I have here and everything that I've been given," Mevitz said.
Though Postiglione and Sibson didn't compete, they were embracing all the energy from the crowd and were supporting their teammates the entire time.
"What we told [the girls] to focus on was to just "enjoy it, absolutely enjoy it," Nilson said. "Tonight is the night for the seniors. Tonight is the night for the team. And they did that. They did a beautiful job"