A win is a win
Providence, RI 2/16/2000 .......
On this Wednesday night in Rhode Island, the MIT women's gymnastics team posted their first win of the season. It's always been more about having fun here at MIT than actually winning, but it is nice to win a meet once in a while. Considering that it was a weeknight meet and at the mid-point of the season when most athletes are dealing with aches and pains, it was a very good meet for MIT. The final score was MIT 167.950 to Rhode Island College's 165.375. Rhode Island College is actually only one of two Division III schools that MIT competes against during the regular season (the other being Springfield College).
The host school began on vault and performed very comparable vaults to MIT's lineup. RIC has a very talented first year student in Sajdah Ahmad, and she won the meet on vault with a handspring front tuck that scored a 9.125. MIT in the meantime was struggling a bit with bars where both Amy Shui '02 and Karla Maguire '01 had to count falls. Carrie Garceau '03 came through with a solid 8.2 routine and Sonja Ellefson '01 posted the highest score of the night with a 9.3 routine.
Vault was also a chore for the MIT squad on this night as they only managed a 41.875 as a team total while RIC had posted a 42.95 in the prior rotation. At the half-way mark of the meet, it was MIT 81.775 and RIC 80.65. Moving to floor, which is traditionally one of MIT's strongest events, the team looked tired, but managed to pull through with their routines and post a 43.95 event total while RIC was scoring a 42.075 on the balance beam. And, the last event for MIT on this long day in the middle of the week was balance beam. With the other three events being somewhat below the season average, we weren't quite sure what to expect on beam. As it turns out, the team posted one of it's highest beam totals of the season with a 42.225 aided by Sonja Ellefson's 9.3 routine
In the end, MIT won 3 out of the 4 events and went home with their first team win of the season. MIT's next meet will be at the University of Vermont on February 26th and the following day at Springfield College. The final home meet of the season will be on March 4th, the week before MIT host's the conference championships.