Sierra Kondo leapt onto the high bar and formed into a cast handstand during Maryland gymnastics’ first rotation, uneven bars, on Saturday. But she then flipped into a pike Jaeger too far from the high bar, causing her to fall on the ground.

The junior regrouped herself and got back onto the bars to finish her routine with a stuck double layout landing. Kondo earned an 8.800 en route to the Terps’ lowest event tally of the season, a 47.825.

The junior’s mistake wasn’t the only one of the rotation. Lindsey Bacheler, proceeding Kondo, also fell on the same skill, resulting in a 8.775. Victoria Gatzendorfer and Rhea Leblanc led the way on the event with two 9.800s.

The Terps finished fifth out of five teams with a season-low 195.100 in the second session of the Big Five meet in State College. With six athletes competing each event, one score was dropped — allowing some mistakes to be forgotten.

Maryland’s early errors still got the Terps off to a slow start and forced them to claw back points on later rotations, but it couldn’t overcome those mistakes en route to a last-place finish.

Coach Brett Nelligan said the way major competitions like Saturday’s are scored makes it harder to put up high scores.

“When you have a meet that’s deciding a conference regular season championship, the judges tend to be a little discerning,” Nelligan said. “The scores have been tight in this meet, that’s what we’ve seen in the past. But again, it’s still up to us to not worry about the scores and do our job.”

Maryland (3-7, 2-7 Big Ten) faced No. 11 Michigan, No. 21 Illinois, No. 22 Penn State and Iowa. The winner, Michigan, scored 197.500.

[No. 25 Maryland gymnastics falls to No. 10 Michigan State, 197.550-195.525]

Maryland, in dire need of a huge score, transitioned to the balance beam. Emma Silberman led off, powerfully displaying a double back handspring layout to layout stepout. Silberman landed with her chest up and feet solidly on the apparatus. She finished her routine with a nearly stuck dismount, enough to add a score of 9.750.

After completing their tumbling series, Natalie Martin and Gatzendorfer nearly fell off the beam but saved themselves with multiple arm swings. The gymnasts then moved through their performances and each ended with a 9.650.

Maddie Komoroski and Josephine Kogler completed the Terps’ beam rotation with strong scores. Komoroski completed a one arm back handspring to layout step with full composure to score a 9.800 and Kogler strongly formed into 360 degree leaps, earning a 9.875.

“I’m so proud of Maddie,” Nelligan said. “She puts in the work day in and day out and she really put everything together tonight on floor … she more than deserved that.”

Maryland’s beam was awarded a 48.800.

Coach Brett Nelligan’s team headed into a much needed bye rotation after recording two scores of less than 49.000.

After waiting nearly 30 minutes, the Terps began their strongest event, floor.

Taylor Rech opened her routine with a double back tuck, perfectly sticking the landing. The sophomore transitioned to fully extend her leaps and ultimately finished with her chest up on her final pass. Rech tied her career high, scoring a 9.875.

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The sophomore wasn’t the only gymnast to tie or earn a career high on the event.

Samantha Gilbert tallied a career-high 9.850 in only her third collegiate performance. The senior displayed tight lines and squeezed feet in her tumbling passes.

Along with Gilbert, Komoroski executed her routine with solid toe points and flexibility. Komoroski performed a switch ring, passing a perfect 360 degree split and finding connection between her head and back foot. She added a 9.950 to the rotation.

The Terps’ bounced back after two slow rotations to tally their highest floor score of the season, a 49.425, the second highest of any team in the competition.

“The first two didn’t go the way we wanted them to,” Nelligan said. “So having that bye in the middle gave us a chance to kind of collect ourselves and get turned around in the right direction.”

Despite a strong performance after two slow events, Maryland sat in last place entering the final rotation, vault.

Martin led the way, tallying another career-high 9.900. The freshman performed a difficult Yurchenko one and a half, nearly sticking the landing. Martin kept her feet and legs together in the air, allowing for less deductions.

Kogler assisted the Terps’ vault unit with a 9.850 and Alexa Rothnbuescher a 9.775, en route to a 49.050 total.

Maryland’s major improvement from the meet’s first half wasn’t enough to take over fourth place Iowa, ultimately resulting in another last-place finish at a Big Five meet.

“I have no doubt that we’re gonna put it all together,” Nelligan said. “We have a lot of great opportunities coming up to do that.”