The North Carolina gymnastics team competed against Pittsburgh, Towson and LIU Brooklyn in the Towson quad meet on Friday. The Tar Heels finished in first place, separating themselves from the rest of the teams by as many as 6.925 points with a final score of 195.000.
What happened?
The Tar Heels began the first rotation on the uneven parallel bars and finished with a score of 48.775, falling behind Towson by 0.025. Sophomore Elizabeth Culton led UNC in this event with a score of 9.825 while also leading the team in the beam and floor events throughout the meet.
In the second rotation, UNC posted its best score of the night with a 49.075 on the balance beam, positioning the Tar Heels in first place for the first time that night. Culton finished with the top balance beam score of the whole meet at 9.925, and redshirt first-year Hallie Thompson finished second on the team with 9.825.
The Tar Heels remained the top competitors in the meet through the third and fourth rotations after posting scores of 48.875 on the floor exercise and 48.275 on vault. In the third rotation, sophomore Brianna Greenlow finished second on the team for floor exercise with a 9.800, and junior Shailyn St. Brice finished right behind her at 9.775. The team finished the meet with Culton, Thompson and St. Brice leading in a three-way tie on the vault event after they each scored a 9.675.
North Carolina completed the meet as victors with a final score of 195.000, which was 1.125 points ahead of second-place Pittsburgh.
Who stood out?
Culton played a significant role in the Tar Heels’ success after finishing first in the all-around portion of the meet with a score of 39.275. Culton also recorded the highest balance beam score of the entire meet and led UNC's gymnasts in three other events.
Greenlow also was key in Friday night's win, finishing third in the meet with an all-around score of 38.850 and earning fourth place in the floor exercise rotation out of all four schools' competitors.
