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The Daily Tar Heel

Gymnastics rebounds Saturday at home

Senior Maura Masatsugu performs on balance beam.
Senior Maura Masatsugu performs on balance beam.

The North Carolina gymnastics team sent Maryland back to College Park Saturday, marking the Terrapins’ first loss of the season and vindication for the UNC team.

Maryland beat North Carolina by a slim margin Jan. 26 in College Park, but this Saturday the Tar Heels were able to rebound and refresh their focus to put together a well-rounded performance.

The Tar Heels edged out the No. 15 Maryland Terrapins 195.675 to 194.825 — UNC’s highest score of the season — in Carmichael Arena this weekend.

Senior Elizabeth Durkac said the team had been competing well in parts of meets recently, but it had not been able to perform its best in all four events until Saturday.

“We put a whole meet together, that’s what we wanted to do,” Durkac said. “Last weekend we had two good events, two not-so-great events. (This) was redemption within ourselves.”

Coach Derek Galvin said his team had a “complete meet” Saturday.

“No one backed off,” he said. “They all competed with confidence and composure.”

Galvin said the Tar Heels were focused and excited in the week of practice leading up to the meet, and the week also offered some gymnasts time to rest their bodies to regain the strength needed for the meet Saturday.

Aside from the overall title, UNC gymnasts also captured the top two spots in the all-around competition. Durkac placed second with 39.200 points, and sophomore Haley Watts took first place with a score of 39.225.

Galvin said he was pleased to have two gymnasts break a score of 39 in all-around, adding that this meet exemplified a greater depth.

Watts said a different mindset contributed to the better performance.

“I think that we came into this meet focusing on the fact that we know we can do this and not letting any negativity get into our minds,” Watts said. “And we just went out there and gave it our all.”

Maryland took a slim early lead in the meet, barely outscoring UNC on both of the first two events — vault and uneven parallel bars — but the Tar Heels were able to come back during the final two events to seal the win.

Galvin said assistant coach Amy Smith promotes the mantra “refresh” to motivate the gymnasts.

Last time the Tar Heels competed against the Terrapins, things didn’t go exactly the way they wanted them to.

And even the first half of Saturday’s meet was not going as well as UNC hoped, but the Tar Heels did what they were taught to do — they refreshed.

Contact the desk editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.

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