As the Maryland gymnastics team prepared for the Maryland Quad Meet on Sunday, coach Brett Nelligan focused on what he calls “the little things.”
“I want to see them put a complete meet together by working on the little details,” Nelligan said. “I want them to put all four rotations together.”
The Terps will face William & Mary, Rutgers and Brown this weekend in their first home quad meet of the season.
[Read more: Maryland gymnastics loses, 196.875-195.050, to No. 7 Michigan]
Last weekend against Michigan, Maryland focused on improving its vault rotation, working on strong landings and explosive vaults. The team’s overall vault score improved to 49.15, from 48.675 in the previous week’s matchup with Iowa.
“We have really put a lot of emphasis on vault, on the landings, and just try to minimize as much deductions as possible. It showed right away at Michigan,” Nelligan said. “Those were the best vaults that we’ve done this year.”
Against the Wolverines, sophomore Alecia Farina posted a 9.85 on vault, the second-highest on the team.
“My biggest goal is to show everyone and ourselves that everything we’ve been working on — the little things — have been paying off,” Farina said.
Nelligan hopes to his team’s practice improvements on game day.
Not only do the Terps continue to work on small details, Farina said they’ve also improved their mentality.
Another leading all-around gymnast, sophomore Kirsten Peterman, explained that teammates must maintain a positive attitude, so they focus on perfecting the minor details of their routines.
With the combination of the growing confidence performing “the little things,” and the team’s changing mentality, the Terps agreed they’ll display improvement Sunday, hoping to reach a score of 196 for the first time this season.
“It doesn’t matter who our opponent is,” Nelligan said. “We just focus on trying to do the best gymnastics that we can — the cleanest, the sharpest.”
