Department of athletics, physical education and recreation
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Engineers Progressing Despite Pair of Weekend Losses
Jan. 16, 2007
DEKALB, Ill. - MIT's Julia Zimmerman posted a personal-best score of 9.500 with a handspring front vault on Sunday afternoon, which was enough to clinch the sophomore a second-place finish in the all-around competition against Div. I host Northern Illinois University and the University of Wisconsin-Stout. However, Tech was unable to relay Zimmerman's fine performance into success in the team competition, as the Huskies (190.950) and the Blue Devils (176.900) outpaced the Engineers (174.075). The Cardinal and Gray fall to 0-3 on the young campaign with the losses, while Northern Illinois improves to 2-0 with the season-opening victories. Wisconsin-Stout moves to 1-2 with the split. Zimmerman was Tech's top performer in every event, securing an all-around score of 37.275, less than a point behind the winner, Northern Illinois' Leah Johnson. The Chicago, Ill., native had her family in attendance at the competition and made the most of her opportunity to display her skills by opening with a 9.175 on the bars. She then stuck her beam routine to earn a 9.450 before securing a 9.150 on the floor exercise. Her personal-best vault rounded out her impressive afternoon. Junior Sophia Harrison also had a strong showing in Dekalb, finishing fifth overall in the all-around with a score of 35.125. The native of Laguna Hills, Calif., shone particularly well on the vault (9.025) and the beam (8.950). Vault was by far the squad's most consistent event, as sophomores Rachel Tatem (9.225) and Alison Barnard (9.025), junior Sarah Trowbridge (8.725) and freshman Katie Mingo (9.125) all put together solid results. Head coach Jen Miller-McEachern offered up particular praise for freshman Marie Heglund, who executed an exhibition routine with all new skills, and senior Lara Hershcovitch, who had a mistake-free performance in her floor exercise (8.775). Miller-McEachern is delighted with the progress and hard work that her team is putting forth, despite the absence of winning results early in the season. "Knowing that this was our second meet of the season and being aware of the fact that we had a few lineup changes, our goal was to put some more experience under our belts," she said. "We're a team that is starting the season with a lot of new skills and we just need some time to refine them," she added. The Engineers will look to show off their refined skills when they host their first meet of the season on Saturday, Jan. 20 at 1:00 p.m. Making the trek to Cambridge to compete against the Cardinal and Gray will be Cortland State University, the University of Rhode Island and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. |
