Liberty University Club Sports Athletics
Lady Flames first, third, and fourth all-around at JMU
2/14/2017 12:00:00 AM | Gymnastics
Placing quality of performance over quantity of participants, Liberty University's gymnastics team reaped rewards of months of practice with another successful showing, Saturday at James Madison University.
The Lady Flames dominated the meet, placing four gymnasts in the top 10 out of a field of more than 50 women's competitors. They finished first as a team with 137.65 points, nine points higher than runner-up Rutgers and third-place Penn State in a field that also included Christopher Newport, JMU, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia.
"We probably had the smallest team there, but we were a little over nine points ahead of second-place (Rutgers), which in gymnastics is like winning a football game by five touchdowns," Liberty Head Coach Tim Kappel said. "Gymnastics is normally a tenths-of-a-point competition. The girls had a really good day."
Senior Ashley Grim won the all-around competition with 35.5 points followed by sophomore teammates Julie Bouton (third with 35.35) and McKella Johnson (fourth, 35.1).
Senior Jessica Hogue rounded out the top 10 with her 31.7 total.
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| Ashley Grim, Julie Bouton, and McKella Johnson placed first, third, and fourth, respectively, in the All-Around. |
Grim (9.35), Johnson (9.0), and Bouton (8.9) finished first through third, respectively, on a scale of 1-10 on the vault.
"As a coach, that's generally a pretty strong event for me and definitely an event we've had success at," Kappel said. "That separates us from a lot of schools, having four athletes competing at a higher start value than most of the other gymnasts."
Bouton (9.3), Grim (9.25), and Johnson (9.2) also finished first, third, and fourth, respectively, in the floor exercise and Johnson placed third on the uneven bars with a score of 8.6 before Grim (9.1) and Bouton (9.0) finished third and fourth, respectively, on the balance beam.
Liberty's men's trio of sophomore Aaron Watson (70.1), senior Austin Minuto (64.5), and junior Cameron Streeter (63.3) turned in balanced scores to rack up a team total of 197.9. They did not medal as a team or place as individuals in any of their six events against a strong field of competitors that included Penn State, which won with 221 points, and runner-up Virginia Tech.
"They performed well and didn't have any massive errors," Kappel said. "They just ran up against some strong competition, including Penn State, which brought at least 15 gymnasts, some of which are alternates for their NCAA team."
On a 12-point judging scale, Watson (11.2), Minuto (11.1), and Streeter (11.0) also scored high on the vault, parallel bars (11.8, 11.1, and 10.5, respectively), floor exercise (11.6, 10.9, 10.7), and rings (11.6, 10.9, 10.9). Watson 11.3) and Streeter (10.3) paced the Flames on the pommel horse and Watson (11.8) and Minuto (11.0) led the way on the high bar.
While the Flames and Lady Flames have room to improve, particularly on the high bar and uneven bars, Kappel is optimistic about the team's prospects of placing well at the April 16 NAIGC Championships in Columbus, Ohio.
"We're feeling pretty good going forward and, personally, I have high expectations going into nationals," he said.
