Feb. 25, 2017
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State women's gymnastics team captured a 195.200-193.525 victory over Pittsburgh on Senior Day on Saturday inside Rec Hall. Three Nittany Lions combined for all four event titles and the all-around title.
"We were really excited," interim co-head coach Kera Molinaro said. "We had a great meet tonight. We wanted to come out and celebrate the seniors and have a fun atmosphere and I think that the girls really enjoyed themselves. We had a few things on certain events, but overall it was an awesome meet."
As a team, the Nittany Lions captured event titles on the uneven bars (49.150), balance beam (48.800) and floor exercise (48.675) en route to the team's fourth-best overall score of the season (195.200).
Individually, junior Briannah Tsang (Vancouver, British Columbia) won the vault (9.825), floor exercise (9.900), and the all-around (39.250), while sophomore Sabrina Garcia (Etters, Pa.) won the uneven bars (9.925) and senior Nicole Medvitz (Paramus, N.J.) captured the balance beam title (9.875).
The Nittany Lions opened the afternoon with a 48.575 on the vault. For Penn State on the opening event, Tsang won her fourth vault title of the season (9.825), while Garcia and Mason Hosek (Pearland, Texas) tied for second-place (9.800). For Hosek, she tied a career-best score on the vault Saturday.
The Blue and White then moved to the uneven bars where they posted their second-highest score of the season with a 49.150. Competing with five gymnasts on the uneven bars, the Nittany Lions finished one through five in the standings.
For Penn State on the uneven bars, Medvitz led off with a 9.825 to place third, followed by a 9.750 from sophomore Gianna LaGuardia (Thornton, Colo.) to finish fifth and freshman Kristen Politz (Morganville, N.J.) recorded a 9.850 to place second as the third competitor. Penn State closed out the uneven bars with a 9.800 from Tsang (fourth-place) and Garcia anchored the Nittany Lion lineup and posted a 9.925 to win her third uneven bars title of the season.
During the third rotation, three Nittany Lions finished in the top-five on the balance beam to help Penn State to an event score of 48.800. For Penn State on the balance beam, Medvitz won her fifth balance beam title of the season with a 9.875, Hosek placed third (9.800) and Tsang tied for fifth (9.725).
Penn State closed out the meet with a 48.675 on the floor exercise. Similar to the balance beam, a trio of Nittany Lions recorded top-five finishes on the floor exercise. Tsang led the way with her third floor exercise title of the season (9.900), sophomore Peyton Schuller (Erie, Pa.) took third (9.825) and Hosek rounded out the top-five with a 9.750.
In the all-around standings, Tsang took the top spot for the fourth time this season (39.250), followed by Garcia (38.925) and Politz (38.200).
Next up the Nittany Lions will head to Philadelphia, Pa., for a quad meet against Bridgeport, Penn and West Chester. The meet is slated for a 4:30 p.m. start on Sunday, March 5 inside the Palestra.