Gymnastics Hosts Annual Orange vs. Brown Intrasquad Meet on Friday

Friday, December 8

Bowling Green, Ohio

6:30 PM

Bowling Green State University

Orange vs. Brown

Photo by: BGSU Marketing and Communications

Gymnastics Hosts Annual Orange vs. Brown Intrasquad Meet on Friday

December 07, 2017 | Gymnastics

By: by Matthew Daley, Athletic Communicationis Assistant

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -- The Bowling Green State University gymnastics team begins its home stretch of preparations for the 2018 season when it hosts the annual Orange vs. Brown intrasquad meet at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 8. The meet will be held at venerable Anderson Arena, which is located at the heart of the BGSU campus and is the home of Falcon gymnastics.

The regular season begins four weeks from Friday at Michigan State, so head coach Kerrie Turner and the team will attempt to replicate a traditional meet environment. Six gymnasts will compete in each event, and there will be an additional exhibition routine for each. The order of the meet will mimic what the Falcons will see when they visit the Spartans: bars, vault, floor, and beam.

For the 2018 season, BGSU returns all but three members of a squad that posted the program's second-best score in school history and best team finish in 30 years at the 2017 MAC Championships. The team placed second with a final tally of 196.400, just one-tenth of a point behind champion Eastern Michigan. The returning roster includes Jovannah East, the 2017 MAC Freshman of the Year and an NCAA Regionals participant in two events. It also includes Kayla Rose, the 2017 MAC floor exercise co-champion. In addition, senior India McPeak returns after being named to the 2017 MAC All-Tournament team.

Bowling Green also has eight freshmen on the 2018 team, as well as several other gymnasts who are returning from injuries that either limited them or kept them out entirely from the 2017 season. This entire group will face a challenging schedule that includes two matchups against Denver, who finished ninth at the 2017 NCAA Championships, as well as three Big Ten opponents (Michigan State, Ohio State, Michigan).

COACH TURNER SAYS...
(About the intrasquad...)
"I am so excited for the intrasquad this Friday. Our team has been working incredibly hard this fall in preparation for the upcoming competitive season, and Friday will be an important opportunity to display the results of that effort. This intra-squad will be a great preview of Falcon Gymnastics. I expect the team to be confident and really attack the routines they have been working on for months now. We can't wait to have our fans back in Anderson Arena."

(About returning key performers...)
"Jo is looking very strong on her events, and I expect she will be a scoring leader all season. Our seniors will also bring experience to the floor. Laura Mitchell is looking very strong on bars and beam, and she has a new floor routine to debut this Friday. India McPeak is also bringing a new routine to the line up as well as her very solid beam routine,"

(About those returning from injury and rising performers...)
"We expect Shannon Goniwiecha to return to the competition floor in January once fully recovered from an injury sustained last year; however she will not be ready to compete Friday evening. After some time away due to injury, Leslie Delgado will compete bars on Friday and we are expecting a big score from her. Lexi Augustine has really used the off- season and pre- season well and should move from exhibition spots last year into the line up this year with potential on three events. She will compete on bars, beam and floor Friday evening."

(About the freshmen...)
"Nacaida Kearns leads this group with consistent training on vault, beam and floor. Alex Fochler brings a huge bar routine to the line up, and we also expect to see routines on various events from Grace Logan and Elena Lawson."

For more thoughts from Coach Turner, check out the video below: