Women's Gymnastics Visits Rutgers for a Quad Meet Saturday

MEET NOTES

THE STORYLINE
West Chester University travels to Rutgers University for a quad meet at Jersey Mike's Arena with Cornell and Ursinus. The meet will be broadcast on the Big Ten + Network. It marks the second time this season that West Chester has appeared on that network. The Golden Rams' season opener at Maryland was also broadcast on Big Ten +. Saturday's meet marks the end of a three-week road trip for the Golden Rams. They have not been at home for a meet since Feb. 10 against Ursinus. They return to Sturzebecker Health Science Center next Friday when William & Mary and Centenary College come calling.

West Chester bounced back from a sub-par performance at the All-American Challenge two weeks ago to post its highest team score of the season. Along the way, the Golden Rams also put up a 49.000 on the balance beam, which marked just the second time in school history that they hit that plateau in a meet.

WCU LAST TIME OUT
West Chester University's women's gymnastics squad posted its highest score of the season in defeating William & Mary inside Kaplan Arena Saturday afternoon. The Golden Rams put up a 194.125 to outdistance The Tribe's 192.275.
 
West Chester (6-6) was powered by its season-best 49.000 on the balance beam. That score is the second-best output in school history and marks just the second time that the Golden Rams hit 49 on the balance beam. The only other time was the 2017 ECAC Championships when they registered a school-record 49.075. In all, seven individual season bests were either tied, or broken, while six career bests were smashed, or equaled. The Golden Rams trailed after two rotations. However, the team's outstanding effort on the floor, followed by its spectacular performance on the beam helped them overtake The Tribe. Sarah Eskew (Pittsburgh, Pa.) turned in a great meet, putting up a career-best in the All-Around with a 39.025. She also had season and career highs on both the balance beam and the vault. She tied for first on the uneven bars with teammate Jordan Coleman (Bowie, Md.). Both scored a 9.775. Eskew tied for third on the vault, but her 9.775 was a career high. Teammate Shannon Carroll (Kingston, N.H.) had a career day as well. She hit season and career bests on both the vault and the floor exercise. Carroll tied for first on the vault. Both gymnasts scored a 9.8. Carroll's 9.775 on the floor was third overall. Teammate Caroline Cascadden (Ashburn, Va.) scored a 9.8 to place second. Cascadden ended her special day with a first-place ribbon on the balance beam. Her 9.875 was tops in the meet and equaled her career high. Kristina Rodriguez (Cincinnati, Ohio) and Natalie Marshall (Bolton, Mass.) each tied for second on the beam as well. Rodriguez had a season and career high 9.8 that matched Marshall's routine. Eskew was fourth on beam with a 9.775 and Madison Whitaker (Lancaster, Pa.) was fifth with a 9.75 as West Chester swept the top five spots.

SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
CORNELL (7-15)
Michaela DeFrancisco took home a share of the vault title with a career-best 9.825 to lead Cornell to a third-place finish in the 2024 Ivy Classic on Saturday night from the Palestra. Cornell's 194.625 team score is the highest the Big Red has recorded in the meet since scoring 194.350 in a runner-up finish in 2018. Alongside its podium finish, Cornell also hit its best team score since recording 195.000 in the semifinals of the 2018 USAG Collegiate National Championships.

RUTGERS (5-13)
Rutgers gymnastics teamed up for its seventh-highest score in team history at the New Hampshire Quad on Feb. 11 with Brown and Towson, scoring a season-best 196.200 to finish second in the meet. RU was just one-tenth off Towson's winning 196.300. The Scarlet Knights combined for three event victories, their fourth-best bars score in team history, three 9.9+ scores, and seven career-high or tying scores.

URSINUS (2-12)
Facing the host SUNY Brockport Golden Eagles and Springfield College, the Bears finished second with a team score of 191.350 which was the highest since earning a 191.500 score at West Chester back in March of 2017. Ursinus nearly took out two event team records in the process as they tallied a 47.425 on the vault, 46.925 on the bars, 48.475 on the beam, and 48.525 on the floor. Brockport won the meet with a team score of 193.700 and Springfield came in third with a 189.625.

WEST CHESTER IN THE SPOTLIGHT
West Chester University will have two competitions air on the Big Ten+ Network his winter. West Chester travels to Rutgers for a quad meet on March 2 that will be the second and last time on the BIG Ten Network. The Golden Rams' meet at Boise State was also on the Mountain West Network.

Last year, West Chester appeared on ESPN+ twice. It's meet inside the Palestra at University of Pennsylvania was televised on ESPN+ while it's quad meet at Temple in March also aired on the same network. Additionally, West Chester appeared on ESPN+ three times in 2022, including the GEC Championships, making it seven national television appearances in the last three seasons for the Golden Rams.

MAKING A NAME FOR ITSELF AMONG THE GIANTS
West Chester University, which competes at the NCAA Division II level in all other sports at the school, has held its own against the mostly Division I institutions that make up the Gymnastics East Conference. The Golden Rams are a combined 15-0 in head-to-head competition against GEC schools in the regular season, and West Chester has taken third place in each of the first two GEC Championships (2022, 2023). Couple that with wins over Alaska-Anchorage a year ago and a victory against Bowling Green in  2020, and West Chester has represented itself rather well against larger schools with much more money and resources.

USA WOMEN'S GYMNASTICS CHAMPIONSHIPS COMING TO WEST CHESTER
West Chester University has been chosen to host the 2024 USA Gymnastics Women's Collegiate Championships this coming April. It marks the first time that the Golden Rams have hosted the national tournament in school history. The six-team tournament format guarantees a spot for the host institution, which would increase the field to seven should West Chester not have a high enough National Qualifying Score (NQS) at the end of the regular season. To be eligible for the USAG national tournament, a school must offer fewer than six scholarships to its gymnasts.