The Lindenwood gymnastics program set a new regular season team record on Friday night at Hyland Arena during the Lindenwood Five-Team event. The Lady Lions finished second overall, with wins over Bridgeport, Illinois State, and Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and the only loss coming to No. 12 Oregon State.
Lindenwood finished with a final score of 195.325. It was just the third time the Lady Lions scored above a 195, with both of the others coming during last year's postseason run. Oregon State won the competition with a 196.350. Lindenwood's top rival, Bridgeport, ended with a 194.150. The Lady Lions scored higher than Bridgeport in three of the four events. Rounding out the competition, MIC's Illinois State had 190.725 and Wisconsin-Eau Claire had 188.925.
Freshman
Katey Oswalt picked up her first win as a Lady Lions by tying for first place in the beam with a score of 9.850. Other top individual finisher for Lindenwood was
Kierstin Sokolowski finishing second on the vault and third in the all-around, and
Trystien Charles tying for third on the bars.
The Lady Lions opened the competition on the vault and scored a 48.825, the third-highest mark in program history. The bottom of the team's lineup pushed the high school including a 9.700 by
Kayla McMullan, a 9.775 from
Aubree Horn, a 9.825 from
Valeri Ingui, and a 9.850 from Sokolowski.
On the bars, Lindenwood scored a 48.900, which was also the third-highest mark for the Lady Lions. Charles scored a 9.825, just ahead of Ingui and Horn with 9.800 marks.
Lindenwood matched its vault score on the beam, with all five counting scored being higher than a 9.700. That mark was the second-highest in program history. Oswalt's winning performance led the squad, while
Rachel Zabawa had a 9.775 and Sokolowski had a 9.750.
On the final event, the Lady Lions had a 48.775 on the floor, which tied for seventh in program history. Zabawa concluded the competition with a 9.850 score, and
Andavea Alexander had a 9.800.
Lindenwood, which is now 4-2 on the year, goes on the road next Friday for a 7 p.m. event at Illinois State. Ball State will also be at that completion.
