After each of Arkansas’ routines against the Terrapins gymnastics team, Razorbacks fans performed a choreographed cheer, hollering “woo” while bringing their hands upward before yelling “pig sooie” with a fist pump, finishing the traditional Arkansas cheer.
All night, the No. 11 Razorbacks, the first SEC gymnastics team to visit College Park since 2011, were loud.
Arkansas’ volume and scores reminded the Terps they are in another league —and conference — than the Razorbacks. Arkansas knocked off the Terps, 196.150-194.425.
“That’s what you get with a quality opponent,” coach Brett Nelligan said. “They did exactly what you would expect a top-11 team to do.”
The Terps, as they have all season, emphasized focusing on themselves rather than paying attention to the opponent. Still, sophomore Abbie Epperson said the Razorbacks fan interaction was “fun to watch.”
Junior Sarah Faller led off for the Terps on vault, and though she didn’t fall, she nearly didn’t complete her flip, having to hop to remain on her feet. She received a 9.625, so for the first time in three meets the Terps elected to perform a sixth vault, in hopes that anchor Evelyn Nee would be able to better Faller’s score.
But Nee earned a 9.575, meaning the Terps (2-7) counted Faller’s vault and the proceeding four, totaling a 48.7. That 48.7 is right in line with the team’s season average, but they would have needed more than their average performance to knock off the Razorbacks (4-5).
For the second consecutive meet, the Terps had two falls and another big wobble on beam, making the event their lowest score (48.075) of the competition. Before the meet, Nelligan said that the team had to avoid overthinking to nail the beam routines.
All year, the Terps have touted their ability to bounce back from missteps in meets, and they proved that to be an asset again Friday. Like they did last week, the team recovered from falters on beam to post a season-high on floor, preserving their streak of having at least one season-high event score in each meet this season.
“I told them ‘Let’s take the energy and bring it way up,'” Nelligan said of his pre-floor speech, “and they really responded. That was one of our best floor performances of the year.”
Other than beam, the team’s strengths on the other three events shone through again. Nelligan said he thought the vault was a good start, then Epperson tied the meet’s high score on bars with a 9.8, and Kathy Tang won the floor by tying her career-high with a 9.875.
Freshman Shynelle Agaran made her college debut Friday, performing on bars and beam after missing the team’s first five meets with a concussion.
She suffered a fall on the bars but recovered to perform a beam routine that had a wobble but no fall. Nelligan said the earlier fall was uncharacteristic.
“She missed the release on bars a few times in warm-ups,” Nelligan said, “and I’m not sure if that affected her or not. It could just be the first-time, freshman experience.”
The Terps’ final score of 194.425 is just above their average entering the meet of 194.290. But breaking 49 on just one event, floor, would never be enough to knock off the elite talent of the Razorbacks, whose lowest event score of the night was 48.9.
Nelligan said he didn’t think the Razorbacks would be happy with their score of 196.15, which tied for their third lowest of the season. Meanwhile, his message after his team’s 194.425 included plenty of positives.
“We’re so close to where we need to be,” Nelligan said. “Every week it seems like if one or two routines go the other way, we’re right where we need to be.”
