Texas Woman’s at Centenary

Recap 

The Big Storyline: Centenary posted a season high by more than three points on its senior night thanks to season highs on vault and floor. Seniors Kendall Sanders and Xian Baumgartner had strong outings in their final performances in the Gold Dome. Sanders had a career high in the all-around while Baumgartner wowed the crowd with her entertaining floor choreography and was rewarded with a career high of her own. Kendall Huff assisted the vault total with her stuck Yurchenko tuck full and boosted the floor total with a season high 9.725. Despite a somewhat slow start to the meet on bars, TWU continued to improve on every event throughout the competition. Madeline Gose brought the heat yet again with another pair of 9.8-plus scores. Steelie King also showed strong performances, leading the team on bars and beam. 

Implications: Centenary will be proud to have finally put a meet together that more closely resembles its potential. The Ladies had season highs on three of four events. The veterans in the bar lineup led the way, avoiding counting multiple falls this week. Although the Ladies are out of the team nationals picture, some individuals are making their final push for a national bid. Taylor Ann Wilson’s 9.8-plus scores in two consecutive weeks have helped her cause, but the reigning USAG national champion will need to keep the momentum on the road next week to 100% lock in her place in the field. The duo of Kendalls, Huff and Sanders, are looking likely to qualify on vault and in the all-around, respectively. Emma Lavelle is a dark horse for qualifying to nationals on beam and floor, but inconsistency has reared its head in the last couple weeks. Her floor performance this week helped her case, but she was put in the exhibition spot on beam this week. For the team to optimize its beam scoring potential at conference championships, Lavelle will need to be on the positive side of lineup decision making. TWU had a near-195 score even with some mistakes and missing key contributor Kyla Podges this week. There’s a reason the Pioneers remain the No. 1 team in USAG. Although this week’s team score was not super helpful in the NQS department, the team didn’t really need an extraordinary boost in season average. The Pioneers have pulled nearly three-tenths away from the next best team in the USAG field. With the conference championships looming, TWU will need to be firing on all cylinders to challenge Illinois State and its two 10.0 start value vaults. Luckily for the Pioneers, they hold the home floor advantage this year. 

Records: Senior Kendall Sanders posted a career high 38.875 in the all-around. Xian Baumgartner upped her floor career high to 9.750 while teammate Kendall Huff tied her floor high of 9.725.