No. 4 NU women’s gymnastic team falters at home to No. 20 Missouri

The NU women's gymnastics team began last Saturday's meet against the Missouri Tigers with two career-high marks and a season-high score from three gymnasts to help capture the vault event title.

That performance was then followed by a team win on the bar event assisting the Huskers to a 98.425-98.025 lead after two events.

But what happened in their next event on balance beam was something even NU coach Dan Kendig had rarely seen in his 19 years as a coach at Nebraska.

"We've never even done that in practice," Kendig said. "Tonight was a total surprise."

The first performer on beam was Husker gymnast Janelle Giblin, who committed a fall 15 seconds into her performance. It didn't take long until one of the team's more consistent gymnasts fell again, 20 seconds later.

Giblin finished with a score of 8.100 on beam, a career-low for the junior. But the errors didn't end there.

Three more Huskers would tumble resulting to a season-low team score of 46.950 in the event.

"Momentum works both ways and today it worked in Missouri's favor," Kendig said. "Tonight was a total surprise."

That was all the momentum No. 20 Missouri would need to take over the rest of the meet, as fans witnessed their No. 4 women's gymnastics team fall Saturday to the Tigers, 195.725-194.55, for the first time this season.

Assistant coach Heather Brink, who coaches beam for Nebraska, thought the team lost focus in the third event.

"We do practice meet situations all the time in practice," she said, "once or twice a week. That has never happened."

Prior to the beam event, freshman Jessie DeZiel scored a 9.85 on vault and 9.825 on bars, which later led her to win the all-around title with a score of 39.375. Sophomore Jamie Schleppenbach ended the vault event with a season-high 9.90 score.

The Huskers then moved to bars where many of their performance scores by the judges seemed questionable to coach Brink.

"(The scores) were definitely tight but that's going to happen," Brink said. "We're going to have to deal with it. I tell the girls not to focus on the scores, just their routines."

Although the team had a shaky start, they finished with a total score of 49.125, with Giblin scoring a career-tying 9.90. She would go on to win the event for her third consecutive meet this season.  

But what looked like a promising start quickly diminished as the Huskers trailed after three events, 147.50-145.375.

In the final event, Nebraska finished strong as Lora Evenstad and DeZiel closed the meet with two consecutive 9.90 performances. However, their late surge wasn't enough as the Tigers scored a 48.675 in their last event on beam.

In order to move on, the team has to forget what happened, according to Brink.

"It just can't happen again," she said. "I believe in them and that's why it's so disheartening to watch what happened today happen."

The team's next meet will be against Oklahoma, Minnesota and Centenary next Friday in Norman, Okla. Kendig said he won't use Saturday's performance as a prediction for what's to come for the team.

"It's not what happened today, it's what happens Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, to make next Friday that much better," Kendig said.

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