by David F.P.

It’s a bit tougher for me to comment on this meet. The reason is because a lot of gymnasts who have been doing quite well had some off days. It just was a tough meet it seemed, but there were plenty of high points. It was a very unique meet in many regards, MIT unveiled several new routines, and Brown arrived with their mix of veterans and a very good Freshman class as well.

As I entered the arena, some pretty hilarious background music was playing. Not the typical fare for collegiate meets, but I felt it worked well. Both MIT and Brown seemed to be keeping loose and for that matter, enjoying themselves. 😀 Since it was a dual meet, the announcements of who was competing came through fine, so I actually had an idea of who was on each event. Thank god for dual meets. I once attended a meet where I’m fairly sure there were four women’s teams and 2 men’s teams on the floor at once. Try keeping up with that one.

Here are some highlights…

MIT’s Julia Zimmerman continued her consistent performances on Vault, Beam, and Bars, but had a very unusual stumble on Floor. She normally hits Floor so this seems more like a fluke than anything else. Sarah Trowbridge, had a solid Beam score as well and a good vault. Laura Kelly put up some of her best scores of the season if memory serves me correctly. Katie Mingo debuted a floor routine and scored 9.2 on it. Gina Policelli debuted a vault and had a good start. I will be extremely interested to see how this team looks in a few weeks as they are definitely in transition.

For Brown it seems that injuries are continuing to take their toll. I do not have a lot of injury information for obvious reasons, but it does seem that Brown is dealing with a few.

Whitney Diederich is continuing to do well on Floor. Izzy Kirkham-Lewitt’s scores dipped a little, though the scores look worse than they actually are, a point here and a point there on each event, but still solid scores for one of Brown’s Freshmen contributors. Another Freshman, Alanna Kwoka, lead the team on Vault and Floor with good scores. Jennifer Sobuta kept up a string of solid scores, including a 9.75 on Beam. And um…guess that’s it….

Oh yes…..Alicia Sacramone…how could I forget…haha

She stuck her landing on Bars but looked like she had a form break at one point and landed a 9.65. On Beam, however, no such problem…9.875. She also did her usual vault for an 8.7.