The No. 73 Ithaca College gymnastics defeated the No. 82 Springfield College Pride 192.05–189.175 on Feb. 4. This comes after a season low 187.550 score for the Bombers the previous weekend, which gave the Bombers a last place finish at a quad meet at West Chester University on Jan. 27.
As the hosting team, the Bombers started on vault. The Bombers performed admirably in the event with only one gymnast falling. Since teams get to drop the lowest score, it did not hurt the Bombers.
Junior all-around Jillian Freyman, who was out last season from an elbow injury on vault, performed a front handspring front tuck and earned a 9.675. The highest score came from sophomore bars floor and vault specialist Grace Murray, who did a front handspring front pike, and earned a 9.775. The rotation closed out with the Bombers leading 48.100–46.650.
The Bombers moved to the uneven bars, where they managed to put up a good performance in spite of missing junior vault floor and bars specialist Nicole Lonski, who was injured at a home meet. Stand out performances in the event came from junior all-around Kaylie Goodwin — whose routine included a Gienger release, earned a 9.6 — and first-year vault and bars specialist Lauren Babineaux who scored a 9.55.
The Pride managed to close the gap with solid performances on vault. The rotation ended with the Bombers down 47.450–46.875 for the rotation but led overall 94.975–94.100.
In the next rotation, the Bombers moved to the balance beam. Junior beam and floor specialist Abby Chesshire, started strong, sticking her gainer full dismount and earning a 9.575. Freyman followed up with a cleanly executed routine and difficult combo to get a 9.775. Sophomore beam specialist Emily Kobusky performed a great routine, which included a round off to layout backflip which scored a 9.800. The highlight was from junior beam and floor specialist Caitlin Pellegrino who earned a 9.825, which she got for clean execution and an impressive front tuck to back tuck combination.
The Pride were on the floor, where they had to count a low score of 8.9 due to a fall.
The rotation closed with the South Hill squad taking it 48.825–47.4 and a three event running total of 143.225–141.5.
In the last rotation, the Bombers finished on floor and the Pride on beam. Senior vault/floor Cassidy Gallivan led off with a clean routine to score a 9.50. Murray was the last to go, and performed well, including a high double backflip pike. She scored a 9.85, five tenths higher than the score that got her third place at the 2023 national championships. Cheshire also scored a 9.85, tying with Murray for the highest individual score on floor.
The Bombers finished off with a program high of 48.825 on floor, beating their previous record of 48.775 from 2019.
The final score was 192.05-189.175, less than 3 tenths below their all-time program record. Head coach Rick Suddaby was very satisfied with the team’s performance and said that focusing on specific events in training contributed to that performance.
“We did a great job today, ” Suddaby said. “Yes, a couple things more to fix, but we got a school record, we got our highest score of the season, we got the highest score in the NCGA East this weekend.”
Freyman, who earned a high 9.775 on beam, said that the team tried to perform just like they do during practice.
“Our last meet was not our best, so we really just wanted to come out here and redeem ourselves and do what we know how to do in the gym,” Freyman said.
Freyman said that a change in mindset helped the Bombers to recover from their loss at West Chester.
“Mindset is a big thing, especially for us,” Freyman said. “[Suddaby] said ’these are the things that didn’t work, this is how we’re going to fix them’ and then we all just got to work. So we went into the gym, we put the hard work in the whole week and we had the mindset again of ‘this is our place, we know how to do it’.”
Suddaby also noted that a change in focus was essential to the team’s victory.
“We found at West Chester, we were focusing on the product instead of the process, so we focused all week on the things you have to do right to get the product that we want,” Suddaby said. “There’s a little nervousness in that, they wanted to get a certain score…but they needed to focus on the things they had to do today.”
The Bombers will face off against Cornell, SUNY Brockport and SUNY Cortland at the Empire State Collegiate Championships at 1 p.m. Feb. 11 at Cornell University.
