In front of a record 4,125 home fans at Carmichael Arena on Friday night, the UNC gymnastics team, under the new leadership of head coach Danna Durante, walked away with a score of 195.70 and a second-place finish to start its season at the UNC Tri Meet.
What happened?
The Tar Heels, who went 11-2 in the 2021 season, faced off against Bowling Green and Auburn in their season opener. The meet featured four events — vault, uneven parallel bars, floor exercise and balance beam.
North Carolina’s first event was vault, in which the six competing Tar Heels accumulated 49.025 points. UNC earned an early lead in the first rotation, with Auburn trailing just behind with 48.825 points on the uneven parallel bars and Bowling Green falling in last place with 48.625 points on their floor exercise.
The Tar Heels then advanced to the uneven parallel bars, from which they walked away with 49 total points. Despite North Carolina’s improved performance, Auburn pulled ahead in the second rotation with an admirable 49.150 on the balance beam. The third rotation, in which UNC competed on beam, proved to be its worst rotation yet, resulting in a score of 48.875. They were outscored by Auburn once again, allowing Auburn to secure first place in the rotation.
The Tar Heels proved unable to recover from this third rotation, and performed even worse in their final rotation of the floor exercise, where they scored 48.800. Auburn secured first place at the tri meet with 196.300 points, but were closely followed by North Carolina, who had a total of 195.700 points to finish second in its first meet of the year.
Who stood out?
The Tar Heels came out ready to compete on Friday, as evident by their scores in each event. Although no North Carolina gymnast scored below a 9.450 on vault, senior Emery Summey and first-year Lali Dekanoidze pulled ahead of the pack, each scoring a 9.825. Dekanoidze competed again in bars and outdid herself with a score of 9.875.
However, the new Tar Heel was not satisfied there. She did just as well on beam, walking away from the event with a 9.850. Fellow first-year Isabelle Schaefer also stood out on the uneven parallel bars, also earning a score of 9.875. Although beam was a low point for North Carolina in the tri meet, the team still shone in the form of first-year Julia Knower, who put up a nearly perfect score of 9.925.
