Kathy Tang
At the end of the allotted warmup time, a group of nine gymnasts in red leotards formed a huddle at the end of the vault runway while a group of 10 gymnasts in black leotards formed a separate huddle by the uneven bars.
After quick cheers and pep talks from coaches on both events, all nineteen gymnasts emerged prepared to perform their routines before an announced 513 in the Xfinity Center Pavilion.
The Terrapins gymnastics team kicked off its season with the annual Red vs. Black scrimmage, their first public showing of the year, on Friday night, but unlike other competitions, the Terps’ squad was split into two teams.
The Black team defeated the Red team 166.125-164.975, but the divided teammate structure was met with mixed reactions.
“I did not like [being separated],” said freshman Abbie Epperson. “This whole week we’ve been red and black, and I want to cheer for my other teammates, but I’m not really supposed to. We kind of do anyways, but I want all of us to be together.”
Junior Kathy Tang, however, thought the separation was a unique situation from what the Terps are typically accustomed to.
“It was cool because we don’t usually do that kind of stuff, but even if you’re on Red or Black or whatever, you’re still cheering on girls from the other team,” Tang said.
The Terps earned a total of four perfect 10 scores on the night, though no professionally trained judges were in attendance. Instead, Terps athletes from other sports, including football players Alex Twine and Zach Dancel and basketball player Melo Trimble, sat behind the judging tables as the Terps performed their routines.
The scores may not have been accurate, but coach Brett Nelligan was pleased with his squad’s showing.
“I thought vault for both teams was unbelievable,” Nelligan said. “We really came out strong. They looked powerful. They looked explosive. The landings were great. We were really happy with vault and bars.”
After the first two vault and bars rotations were complete, however, Nelligan said his team lost some of their momentum, as they counted seven of their eight total falls in the final two events.
“I thought we let the momentum slide a little bit in the second half, a couple falls on beam, a couple out of bounds [landings] and falls on floor,” Nelligan said. “We talked about at the end that once we start fast like that, we’ve got to keep charging all the way through the end of the meet.”
The Terps will return to the gym in preparation for their first regular-season meet at home against George Washington on Jan. 9 and look to build off of their progress and mistakes from the intrasquad.
“We can only go up from here as a team,” Tang said. “I think we did well. We kind of died out at the end, but like I said, we can only go up from here, building on each other.”
