When Terrapins gymnastics sophomore Dominiquea Trotter fell off the balance beam on the first aerial element of her routine Friday against Arkansas, fellow sophomore Abbie Epperson slowly turned away from the event and exhaled before turning back around to watch her teammate complete the performance.
Epperson, who was two spots behind Trotter in the Terps’ beam lineup, said she took the moment to “forget what had just happened” and regain focus.
But Epperson would fall during her routine as well, and for the second consecutive week, the Terps counted a fall on beam. It resulted in their lowest-scoring event of the meet in a 196.150-194.425 loss to the Razorbacks.
During practice leading up to the Arkansas meet, coach Brett Nelligan preached not overthinking on beam with the mantra, “If you let it become a problem, then it’s a problem.” But yet again, beam was a problem for the Terps, and halfway through the season, the lineup is in limbo.
Beam is the only apparatus on which the Terps have never totaled a score of 49 or higher this season. But for a few weeks, it seemed the Terps had found their groove on the event.
In three consecutive meets after their season opener, the Terps didn’t count a fall on beam, meaning at most, one competitor fell off the apparatus. They team’s lowest score in that stretch was 48.275, with a high of 48.800.
In both meets since, though, two Terps have fallen, leading to scores of 47.975 — their lowest score on any event this season — and 48.075.
And the problems on beam haven’t been restricted to just a couple gymnasts. In total, six different Terps have fallen. The coaches have responded by putting out four different beam lineups through six meets.
“We’re just trying to put together a [group of] six,” Nelligan said, “That’s going to gel and be confident in one another … [with] the chemistry for beam that we need.”
After the disappointing performance Friday out of another new lineup, Nelligan made it clear that he’ll be open to further changes ahead of the team’s meet Monday.
Some of the lineup changes have been related to health, but many are based on the previous meet and week of training, Nelligan said.
Friday’s lineup was arguably the most surprising of the season. Junior Leah Slobodin, who has been dealing with a nagging Achilles injury from her freshman season, returned to beam for the first time since falling in the season-opening meet.
Freshman Shynelle Agaran, who’s been out with a concussion this season, entered the lineup for the first time in her career. Senior Kathy Tang was held out for the first time this season, and freshman Megan McClelland didn’t compete on beam for just the second time.
But the new faces weren’t the ones who fell. It was stalwarts Trotter and Epperson, leaving Nelligan with a slew of variables to consider while trying to find the best lineup.
Unlike the lineups, though the formula for success hasn’t changed.
“It’s just a matter of staying confident and competing the way we practice,” Tang said. “People get a little bit nervous. You have to take a deep breath and step back.”
But, as Epperson showed Friday, even a deep breath and a step back won’t always lead to results.
