GEC Championship Session One

Recap

The Big Storyline: In the first session, Cornell lead for the entire meet until the last routine of the when Biana Leon’s 9.825 on beam was enough to take the lead by 0.025. Cornell was forced to count a low bar score, putting the Big Red in that perilous second position. The Owls, Big Red and the Tribe all either set program records or season highs—or both. Bridgeport’s small squad went out fighting, with its fourth-highest beam score of the season, led by Kiana Session who tied for the top spot on floor while distinguishing herself as the top all-arounder in the first session. William & Mary scored its season high by just over a point and a half. Boosted by its season high on bars, nearly a point higher than its previous high, and an extra half-point on floor for another new high. Cornell’s team score was a season high, also adding nearly a point and a half to its previous mark.    

Postseason Implications: We’ll have to wait and see what happens in the draw on Tuesday, but Bridgeport’s Kat Doran may have done enough to qualify to NCAA regionals. After such a great performance, it’s tough to see SCSU unable to qualify to USAGs as a team, but unfortunately that was mathematically impossible before the meet started. 

Records: Southern Connecticut established a new program record with a 194.200, as well as on vault with a 48.575 and bars with a 48.425, a bar record that has stood since 2019. Chelsea Baker scored a career high 9.875 on bars. Ciana Rios posted a career best 9.750 on floor as did Ava Boyd with a 9.625. Sidney Wilson notched a new high of 9.775 on vault. For Cornell, Sydney Beers scored a new best of 9.850 on vault. Sarah Wozniak and Sarah Kuper scored new bests on bars for Willaim & Mary, with a 9.850 and 9.800 respectively. Chloe Campbell and Emma Wiley notched bests on beam with 9.725s. Chloe Campbell added a new high on floor with a 9.850, as did Abby Carpenter with a 9.825. 

Controversies: Scoring felt particularly strict in the first session with not much distinction in the second session, as there were several ties across top competitors in the second session. Still, three out of four of these teams scored season highs, so things obviously weren’t too strict.

Conference Awards

• Gymnast of the Year: Lindsay Chia (Yale)
• Performance of the Year: Mei Li Costa (Brown)
• Newcomer of the Year: Sydney Beers (Cornell) and Sherry Wang (Yale)
• Woman of the Year: Jessica Meakim (West Chester)
• Assistant Coach of the Year: Morgan Ross (Yale)
• Coach of the Year: Andy Leis (Yale)

Preview

• No. 64 Cornell | 191.685 NQS | 193.525 season high
• No. 65 Southern Connecticut | 190.985 NQS | 192.025 season high
• No. 68 William & Mary | 190.010 NQS | 191.075 season high
• No. 70 Bridgeport | 188.515 NQS | 189.925 season high

If you can only watch one meet, here’s why it should be this one… 

It’s a brand new conference championship that’s never been contested before! What could be more exciting? We’ve finally abandoned the split-division format of the ECAC and now we have one single eight-team conference with four teams in each session. 

In this session, we’ll have two DII and two DI teams. Cornell is a strong favorite, with an NQS advantage of around nine tenths. The Big Red has superior difficulty and is the only team in this session to score higher than 193.000 this year. At the bottom, plucky Bridgeport is finding a way to continue filling lineups with only eight healthy gymnasts.

While Bridgeport may not have a ton of pressure to put on William & Mary, the Tribe can certainly come within striking distance of Southern Connecticut. The Owls are just shy of being a full point ahead of the Tribe. To make things extra interesting, the Owls average a 189.342 on their last three meets on the road, and the Tribe is just five tenths behind that. That’s just a single counted fall separating the two teams. But, no pressure.       

If this is one of many meets you’ll be watching, don’t miss this… 

Arguably the best single routine in this session is Bridgeport super-senior Kat Doran on bars. She tied her career-best of 9.925 last weekend, and this is a great opportunity for her to pick up some more individual hardware before she graduates. 

What’s the bigger picture to keep an eye on? 

William & Mary doesn’t compete at USAG nationals, so the Tribe’s season will likely end here, but the others will be looking ahead to that meet. According to our math, Cornell has locked in the final team qualifying spot while SCSU and Bridgeport will not qualify, but the two Connecticut teams can still advance individuals. 

By the Numbers

Since the Gymnastics East Conference is in its very first year of existence, we don’t have a lot of historical stats to share with you! Everything that happens in Providence will be a conference record.

Check out our feature about the formation of the GEC.

Last Time Out

The last ECAC-I champion was Temple, which now competes in the EAGL. The last ECAC-II champion was Bridgeport.