Monday, January 28, 2008

Texas Woman’s gymnastics led by Boles and Poling at quad meet

By Pegasus News wire

A pair of juniors - Amie Boles and Nicole Poling - provided the highlights for the Texas Woman’s University gymnastics team in the Pioneers’ quad meet versus Denver University, Maryland, and Air Force on Sunday afternoon at Kitty Magee Arena.

Boles set a new TWU school record and won floor exercise with a career-high score of 9.900. Poling tied the TWU school record and tied for second place on vault with a career-high score of 9.875.

“They were phenomenal,” said TWU head coach Frank Kudlac of Boles and Poling. “Amie was just outstanding. Her tumbling was powerful, and her dance was graceful. Poling’s vault was awesome. That’s the first time she has hit that vault this year, so it’s exciting to see her making progress.”

Denver University ’s Jessica Lopez was the other star of the meet. The junior All-American from Caracas, Venezuela won the vault with a career-high score of 9.925, won bars with a mark of 9.850, and won the beam title with a 9.875. Lopez’s all-around winning score of 39.500 is the seventh-highest all-around score in DU history.

The individual brilliance of Lopez carried DU to a win in the team competition with a score of 195.700. Maryland placed second with a season-high score of 192.625. TWU finished third with a score of 192.175 while Air Force came in fourth with a team total of 184.125.

Poling’s record-tying effort underscored a strong day on vault for TWU. Freshmen Caroline Hilpisch, Jennifer Liberato, and Mollie Blessing all posted matching 9.775 scores on the event. After junior Brittany Parker hit with a 9.700 vault of her own, the Pioneers had a vault team total of 48.900, their highest team vault score in nearly five years.

“I can’t say enough good things about our vaulters today,” said Kudlac. “We haven’t done as well on that event as I would have liked this season, but, this afternoon, we put it all together. Our vault team is definitely headed in the right direction.”

Senior Courtney Arno-Templet scored a TWU team-high 9.725 on bars. Freshman Amanda Walker also did well on the event, tallying a score of 9.700. Unfortunately, two of the Pioneers’ bar workers fell, forcing TWU to count a fall and end up with a disappointing team bars score of 47.400.

Arno-Templet was also the Pioneers’ top performer on beam. Her beam score of 9.850 was her highest of the season and the second best in the meet. Junior Tonya Pipkorn (9.750) and sophomore Leslie Pladson (9.675) also contributed mightily to the Pioneers’ season-high team beam score of 48.550.

Boles record-breaking routine overshadowed what was an otherwise difficult day on floor for TWU. The Pioneers struggled on what had been their best event of the season to date and finished with a 47.325 team floor score.

“Too many out of bounds, too many falls,” was Kudlac’s summary of the Pioneers’ work on floor exercise. “We’ve really improved this season on floor, but today was a step backwards for us on the event. We’ll be all right though because I believe that all of our errors today are correctable.”

Next up for the Pioneers will be a quad meet in Raleigh, North Carolina against N.C. State, Auburn, and George Washington on Sunday, February 3.

Source: TWU

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