Liberty University Club Sports Athletics
Flames set bars high at season-opening Hokie Classic
11/8/2014 12:00:00 AM | Gymnastics
Competing against a field that included ACC members Clemson, Maryland, Miami, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Virginia, and host Virginia Tech, Liberty University's men's and women's gymnastics teams made impressive season debuts at Saturday's Hokie Classic, a National Association of Intercollegiate Gymnastics Clubs (NAIGC) sanctioned meet.
The Flames, who feature a complete men's team for the first time since the 2010-11 season, finished sixth out of 16 teams while the Lady Flames placed 11th out of 23 women's teams on hand.
"There were nearly 200 competitors on the women's side and almost 100 on the guys, so they did really, really well," Liberty Head Coach Rachel Steele said. "I was pleased with the results."
Illinois won the men's team competition with 242.1 points while Miami (222.31) edged William & Mary (222) for second place, with Ohio State (215.8) taking fourth. Virginia Tech (204) nipped the Flames (203.8) for fifth place.
"We saw a lot of the competition that we will face at nationals," Steele said.
Individually, freshman Cameron Streeter placed eighth in the All Around with a combined score of 72.6, followed by graduate Jonathan Baldwin (16th, 65.3), freshman Austin Minuto (23rd, 60.3), and Rufus Chappell (27th, 53.3).
Streeter tied for fifth in the floor exercise and placed sixth on the parallel bars with identical scores of 13.4.
"Cameron's parallel bar routine was probably the biggest highlight of the meet," Steele said. "He had been having trouble with the dismount in practice and he stuck the dismount perfectly. It was really exciting."
He also placed 10th on the high bar with a score of 11.5 and 12th on the pommel horse (12.1), followed by Minuto (15th, 10.6).
Team-wise, the Flames were most successful on the vault, with all four finishing in the top 150 — Chappell (fifth, 12.9), Streeter (eighth, 12.5), Minuto (12th, 12.1), and Baldwin (13th, 12.0).
Clemson was the top-scoring women's team with 134.7 points followed by Ohio State (131.15), Maryland (127.2), Pittsburgh (126.4), North Carolina (126.15), Virginia Tech (124.3), and Ohio (120.05), and Miami (119). Liberty placed 11th with 112 points, barely trailing JMU's B team (ninth, 117.6) and its A squad (10th, 114.55).
"There's definitely room for improvement, especially on the women's side, where we had a couple errors here and there, but that's to be expected at the beginning of the season," Steele said. "Now, we know what we need to focus on from here on out to make those improvements."
Lady Flames senior captain Alyssa Frost tied for fourth in the All Around with a combined score of 33.2 and sophomore captain Jessie Hogue was right behind her in 11th with 32.15 points to lead the women's team.
"They did really great and they were so excited," Steele said. "Both Alyssa and Jessie have put some new skills in their (uneven bars and balance beam) routines this season and it was nice to see them practice those skills and see how far they've come along. Jessie competed with a new vault on Saturday and it was awesome. She hit it, so that was exciting."
Frost actually placed higher in that event with a score of 8.8 while Hogue placed ninth with an 8.45 total.
Hogue was also 14th on the uneven bars (7.3), barely topping Frost (17th, 7.2), who scored an 8.35 to place 13th on the balance beam to edge Hogue (15th, 8.2). Frost also tied for 18th in the floor exercise (8.85).
Complete results are available on the NAIGC website.
Liberty's next competition is set for Feb. 7 at JMU, which won last year's NAIGC women's national championship in Tennessee.
By Ted Allen/Staff Writer
