Liberty University Club Sports Athletics
Liberty University Club Sports
NAIGC National Championship
Gymnasts land on podium for first time as team with silver medal showing at nationals
4/4/2023 2:09:00 PM | Gymnastics
Sophie Boone claimed a national title on the balance beam to lead Liberty University's women's gymnastics team to a second-place showing behind Penn State at this past Thursday's through Saturday's National Association of Intercollegiate Gymnastics Clubs (NAIGC) Championships at the Renasant Convention Center in Memphis, Tenn.
"It was fantastic," Lady Flames first-year Head Coach Jessie Lowe said. "The girls did awesome. Our second-place nationals finish is the best in the history of our program. It was our first top-three finish ever and first time winning a team banner."
Liberty improved on its 106.6-point team total in Thursday's preliminaries to set a program record with its 109.8-point performance in Saturday's finals, just two points off Penn State's winning total (111.825).
"Penn State was an extremely strong team with a lot of talent on their roster, so it was fun to really compete with them," Lowe said. "It was the best weekend you could ask for and the girls knocked it out of the park on finals day. I am immensely proud of how the girls chose to compete for the betterment of the team rather than for themselves. The energy level was electric, and everyone was invested in each other. It was a super-fun experience, definitely one that we won't forget. We got to experience what a team-centered mindset is and that's huge for the continuing growth of the culture of our program."
The facility featured five interconnected gyms holding events for the seven Level 9 programs and 30-40 more competing in the Level 8 and Platinum divisions.
"It was huge, the biggest nationals I have been a part of," Lowe said.
Liberty's gymnasts were not overwhelmed by competing on the largest NAIGC stage of the season and saved their best for last.
"We were affected by a lot of nerves in preliminaries," Lowe said. "That started on the beam, where we had some uncharacteristic mistakes, which was a little disappointing. But the other teams also had tough days, so we slid into finals pretty easily and finals day was our best-ever (point total) at a championship, which was really exciting. We were thrilled about that."
The Lady Flames finished ahead of both JMU and Rhode Island, the other two teams that qualified for the finals after Texas A&M, Connecticut, and Maryland did not make the cut after preliminaries.
Boone was the Lady Flames' strongest competitor in the All-Around, narrowly missing the podium after falling off the uneven bars.
"She had a tough start on bars, where she had the first fall in an event that counted this season, but she did a fantastic job of bouncing back from that," Lowe said. "She hit a gorgeous beam routine to claim the national title with a 9.75 and landed a 9.5 on the vault and also made it to the finals in the floor exercise, so she was an anchor for us on the vault, the floor, and the beam."
Senior AJ Kenniv also competed on the bars, "hitting the best bar routine of her career," according to Lowe, beam (9.425), and floor exercise (9.3), earning a medal for a seventh-place showing in that event.
"She had a great routine on finals day," Lowe said. "Really, a lot of kids stepped up big on finals day and contributed huge points to the team score. We didn't have any gaps … and didn't count any falls for the team score, hitting 14 of 16 routines on finals day."
Freshman Izzy Sierra matched Kenniv's score on the beam and senior Caitlin Greiner narrowly missed medaling with her 9.375 performance on the vault.
"Izzy (Sierra) had a solid beam routine and put it together under pressure," Lowe said. "After hitting a huge vault in prelims, Caitlin (Grainer) hit it again in finals. (Freshman) Annabella James hit her routines on beam and vault for the team, (junior) Hannah Magners also contributed on vault, and (junior) Audrey Case contributed on bars and floor, where she was a finalist."
She said the connectedness within the team allowed the gymnasts to execute their routines in pressure situations.
"We have a lot of really good spiritual leaders on this team, who are focused on using their gifts to give God glory in victory and defeat, leaving the results up to Him, and that helped center everyone on their purpose for competing," Lowe said.
The Lady Flames will graduate Kenniv, Greiner, and Audrie Pack from this year's squad.
"They all had fantastic finals days in the last competitions of their careers, so I was super proud of them and happy to see them go out on a high note," Lowe said.
She will rely on Boone, a rising senior, and the returning members of her freshman class even more next season.
"We lose three seniors and will have others studying abroad, but we have a solid base of freshmen who are more than ready to step up into leadership positions, so that's exciting," Lowe said. "We asked a lot of our freshmen to step up into pressure situations (at nationals) and every one of them delivered, so that was exciting to see, and they will definitely be able to carry that culture going forward."
By Ted Allen/Staff Writer
Players Mentioned
