PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Senior
Raegan Walker made history once again Sunday as she tied the highest score on the uneven bars in the history of Yale Gymnastics. After a difficult set on one of her strongest events, the balance beam, Walker made a stunning comeback and scored a 9.950 on bars at the Ivy Classic at Brown's Pizzitola Sports Center.
Walker was not the only Bulldog standout. First year
Gigi Sabatini made a remarkable debut in the Ivy Classic and tied for second on the vault. In only her second all-around meet, she placed second in that competition with a 38.775, trailing by 0.175 points. As a team Yale ended up in third with a score of 193.675.
The Bulldogs started on the balance beam, which proved challenging. The event was their lowest score, a 47.600.
Emma Mangiacapre put up a strong performance and ended in a tie for fifth overall. She nailed her difficult back handspring to layout step out combination and scored a 9.750. Sabatini also performed a great routine and scored a 9.700 with only small bobbles.
The Bulldogs started to pull off their comeback on the floor (48.400), where
Hana Strause and
Sarah Wilson were the top scorers for the team. Strause continued her streak as the highest scorer for the team with a 9.725, tying Wilson. Her 2.5 twisting layout to punch front remains as the best pass of the exercise. Wilson tied her highest score with an impressive double pike pass and only a small hop on the landing.
Yale had a solid vault set with no mistakes (48.775). All gymnasts scored above a 9.650. Sabatini remains the team's standout in the event after she scored a 9.825. She only had tiny hop in her Yurchenko full.
Sherry Wang followed closely with a 9.775, performing the same vault and only taking a step.
The uneven bars was the team's strongest event (48.900). Walker earned her place in Yale gymnastics history with a 9.950 on the event. She performed a near-perfect routine with perfect handstands, straight arms in her Jaeger straddle release, and a stuck landing in her double layout dismount. A Jaeger is one of the most difficult release moves in gymnastics. Wilson tied for fourth with a 9.800. She had a clean routine with straight handstands and solid release moves.
Brown (195.200) won the meet, which pits the four Ivy League schools with varsity gymnastics teams against each other. Penn (194.925) was second and Cornell (193.400) was fourth.
Yale returns to competition for the Senior Meet and last home meet of the season next Sunday, 1:00 p.m vs. Bridgeport and RIC at Lee Amphitheater.
