The Maryland gymnastics team was the lowest-ranked squad in the six-team NCAA Raleigh Regional, having finished the regular season as the No. 31 team in the country to clinch its first postseason berth in three years.
The Terps scored 195.85 and outperformed expectations with a fourth-place finish but still fell short of reaching the program’s first national semifinal, which the top-two teams in each regional qualify for.
No. 2 LSU won the meet with a 197.675, followed by No. 11 Nebraska (197.525), North Carolina State (196.05), Maryland (195.85), George Washington (195.425) and No. 14 Oregon State (194.975)
The Terps started on vault, with all-around competitor Audrey Barber posting a team-high 9.825 and helping Maryland score a 48.9 on the event.
Barber posted a 39.025 all-around score, held back by a disappointing 9.6 on floor, her third-lowest score of the season. She finished .25 points short of George Washington’s Camille Drouin-Allaire, who Barber would have needed to beat to advance out of the regional as an individual.
Maryland broke 49 just once, with a 49.075 on bars, preventing the team from posting its third score of higher than 196 this season. They avoided disaster on any event, scoring at least 48.9 on each apparatus.
Even its bars score was a disappointment, though, its lowest mark on the event in more than two months. No Terp scored above 9.825 on bars. Altogether, the team managed just three scores of 9.85: Barber and freshman Sabriyya Rouse on floor and junior Shynelle Agaran on beam.
