Big Ten Network • Meet Notes • Live Scoring
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The No. 17 Penn State Nittany Lions are set to travel to Champaign, Ill. to take part in the Big Ten Championships Session II on Saturday, March 21st at 1 p.m. The Nittany Lions will compete at State Farm Arena with Saturday’s session consisting of Penn State, Iowa, Ohio State and Maryland.
LAST TIME OUT
The Nittany Lions secured a first place finish in the UNC Tri-Meet with a final score of 196.875. Elizabeth Leary competed in the all-around and won with a 39.250 for a new season-high. Ava Piedrahita secured a pair of event titles on the vault and uneven bar apparatuses with a 9.900 and a career-high 9.950, respectively. Dani Latronica earned the event title on balance beam with a 9.875, the seventh on the event she’s earned this season and the most by any Nittany Lion on a single event.
B1G Honors
The Big Ten Conference office announced on Wednesday afternoon that Penn State’s Latronica, Ava Cash and Piedrahita earned All-Big Ten recognition for their performances throughout the 2026 campaign. Latronica was named to First Team All-Big Ten while Cash and Piedrahita were selected to Second Team All-Big Ten. Cash was additionally named to the Big Ten All-Freshman squad. Junior Marisa Fisher was selected as Penn State’s Big Ten Women’s Gymnastics Sportsmanship Honoree.
Latronica collects her first All-Conference nod of her young career. The spectacular sophomore had a pair of NQS marks inside the top-10 for the Big Ten with the seventh-highest mark on bars (9.895) and fourth-best on beam (9.910). On the beam apparatus, Latronica’s NQS is top-20 in the nation. During the season, she tallied six consecutive performances of 9.900 or higher on beam and has not scored below a 9.825 on the event during the campaign.
Piedrahita earns her third All-Big Ten honor of her career after being selected to First Team All-Big Ten during her sophomore campaign and Second Team All-Big Ten as a freshman. Her 9.875 NQS on vault ranks as the seventh-best in the conference and the 9.875 NQS on bars is top-20 in the Big Ten. Most recently, during the UNC Tri-Meet, she secured a new career-high on bars with a 9.950 while also posting a 9.900 on vault during the same meet.
Cash grabs her first and second All-Conference accolades by being selected to Second Team All-Big Ten and Big Ten All-Freshman Team. The freshman has been outstanding for the Nittany Lions this season with the seventh-highest NQS on bars (9.895) in the conference this season while also recording a top-30 NQS on vault (9.835). Cash has produced five performances of 9.900 or greater on uneven bars with the best routine of her career coming at the UNC Tri-Meet when she posted a 9.925 on the apparatus.
NATIONAL RANKINGS
Penn State enter the weekend as the 17th-ranked team in the country as a team. Penn State currently has a team NQS of 196.522 while checking in with a vault NQS of 49.036, the team’s bars NQS being 49.258, the beam rotation at 49.106 and floor exercise at 49.161. The Blue & White have the 11th-ranked rotation nationally on bars and 17th on beam, the second best NQS for bars in the Big Ten and sixth on beam. The Nittany Lions are 22nd nationally on vault and 26th on the floor exercise, seventh in both events in the Big Ten.
Latronica leads Penn State’s bars routine with the 39th best score nationally. The Lake Worth native also found herself in the beam national rankings at 19th in the NCAA and seventh and fourth in the Big Ten on bars and beam, respectively. Latronica leads the team with 11 event titles between bars and beam with 10 scores of a 9.900 or higher and did so for eight straight meets. On the beam apparatus, she has recorded a 9.900 or higher on her last six routines prior to the UNC Tri-Meet. Cash joins Latronica in the uneven bars rankings at 39th nationally and seventh in the Big Ten while Piedrahita is seventh in the conference on vault and 40th nationally.
Follow along with the team on our social media pages on Facebook (PennStateWomensGymnastics) and X/Instagram (@pennstatewgym).