NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- The Yale gymnastics team paid their best tribute to Yale gymnastics legends, Barbara and Don Tonry, as they totaled their second-highest team score in history.
 
Barbara Tonry coached the gymnastics team since its inception in 1973 until 2021. Under her tenure, the Yale bulldogs won 16 Ivy Classic Championships. She also coached 23 ECAC individual champions, 20 Ivy all around champions, and 92 Ivy event champions. Tonry was also inducted to the U.S. Gymnastics Federation Hall of Fame, the National Tumbling and Trampoline Hall of Fame and the Texas Hall of Fame for her excellence in tumbling and trampolining. It was said that she was ahead of her time since trampolining was not an Olympic sport during her time. Her husband, Don Tonry, was a former Olympian, NCAA champion gymnast and Yale men's gymnastics coach from 1962-80. The invitational is named after these two Yale gymnastics legends that built the program to where it now is.
 
Yale (195.125) won against both Southern Connecticut State University (193.050) and Bridgeport (192.650). Gigi Sabatini also clinched the top spot at the all-around (38.825). Sabatini and Ella Tashjian also won their respective events, with Tashjian scoring the third-highest score on floor ever.
 
The team started on vault (48.450) with Sarah Wilson and Tashjian tying for second. Wilson performed a Yurchenko tucked full twist with only a small hop in the landing to get a 9.725. Tashjian performed a difficult Yurchenko layout full twist with a larger step on the landing to get the same score.
 
The Bulldogs followed on bars with a 48.725. Wilson was the strongest performer for Yale, placing in second with a 9.800. She had perfect handstands throughout her routine and punctuated it with a double front tuck dismount. Lily Aucoin tied for third with a 9.775. One of the most difficult elements of her routine was her straddled Jaeger release.
 
Yale put up an incredibly strong performance on beam, where Sabatini placed first and Megan Brueck and Meredith Donovan tied for second (48.725). Sabatini had no wobbles and only had a tiny hop in her 1.5 twist layout dismount to get a 9.800. Brueck had difficult elements in her routine as well including a back handspring layout step out to score 9.775, Donovan also performed the same series well and a strong routine, scoring the same 9.775.
 
The team concluded with floor, their strongest performance (49.225). Today's total score on floor is the fourth highest in Yale program history. Tashjian led the excellent performance with a historic 9.9. Even as a freshman, she performs incredibly difficult double pike passes. Sherry Wang also tied for second with a 9.875. Wang transitioned her one of her most difficult passes— double back— to the hard floor and was rewarded with a high score.
 
Yale will travel to Uncasville, Connecticut for the All-American Challenge next Monday, February 19.