In the Yale gymnastics team’s home opener Saturday, the Bulldogs placed first in all four events on the way to a 187.775–179.600 win over Penn in a meet packed with multiple personal bests, as well as a record-breaking individual score.
The Elis posted their highest score of the season as they beat the second Ivy League opponent they have faced this year — making them 2–0 in Ivy League competition after beating Cornell last weekend. The Bulldogs finished first in every event, a result that captain Brigitte Kivisto ’10 said is crucial as the team looks ahead to the upcoming Ivy Championship.
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“We have beat an Ivy team in each of our last two competitions, which is a really encouraging accomplishment a few weeks from the Ivy League Championship meet,” Kivisto said.
Among the many high scores the Bulldogs posted Saturday, Tara Feld ’13 scored a 9.850 — a new Eli record in the event.
“To break the Yale vault record was such an amazing feeling,” Feld said. “It was so great to know that I was able to contribute to the team in this way.”
Coach Barbara Tonry, along with the rest of the Bulldogs, echoed Feld in her excitement.
“I didn’t know she had broken the school record until they announced it, and I went wild,” Tonry said. “I was impressed.”
In addition to Feld, two other Elis posted impressive scores on the vault, Kivisto with a 9.725 and Allison Mak ’10 with a 9.600.
The Bulldogs continued to dominate as Yale snagged the top-four finishes on the uneven parallel bars. Led by Kivisto with a 9.550, four Elis, including freshmen Stephanie Goldstein ’13, Lindsay Andsanger ’13 and Feld, led the bars with scores all above 9.000.
On the beam, seniors Mak and Kivisto took the two top spots in the event, with a 9.825 and 9.750, respectively. Sherry Yang ’11 followed in sixth place with a score of 9.100.
Although the Bulldogs landed high scores across the board on Saturday, Yang said there are still kinks to work out.
“We had many great individual performances and really came together as a team,” Yang said. “We will need to work on managing nerves during competition.”
But the Bulldogs yielded their best results of the day in the floor exercises. Yale landed the top six finishes in the event as Kivisto, Feld and Talis Trevino ’12 all achieved career-best scores.
Such a strong showing from Kivisto, who finished with a personal-best 38.875, earned her the first-place finish in the all-around competition.
“I like being able to lead by example, and I think placing first all-around is a great example for what our team can do as a whole,” Kivisto said.
Yale’s second consecutive Ivy victory in as many weekends gave the Bulldogs more confidence about where they are headed..
“It was a confidence booster to know that even though we counted falls, we still came out on top, meaning that there is nowhere to go but up,” Yang said.
The team will travel Saturday to face Ithaca and hosts Southern Connecticut State at 1 p.m.