No. 11 Denver Posts a 195.850 in Road Opener

NORMAN, Okla. - The No. 11 University of Denver gymnastics squad combined for a 195.850 on Friday night at the Lloyd Noble Center. DU's team score is its highest in a road opener since the Pioneers scored a 196.425 at Arkansas on Jan. 10, 2003. No. 3 Oklahoma won the meet with a 197.325.

"I thought the team did a tremendous job tonight," head coach Melissa Kutcher-Rinehart said. "They showed a lot of character. We had one fall on three of the four events, but we did a great job overcoming them as a team in the rest of the rotation. This was a complete team effort."

Junior Moriah Martin (Lake Mary, Fla.) led Denver in the opening rotation with a 9.875 on bars. The Pioneers combined for a 49.025 on the event, their second score over 49.000 on the rotation this season. Junior Melodie Pulgarin Linero (Barcelona, Spain) added a 9.850, and in their first seasons with the Pioneers, sophomore Nina McGee (Cincinnati, Ohio) and freshman Maggie Laughlin (Scottsdale, Ariz.) turned in matching 9.800s.

Denver followed up its opening rotation with a season-high 49.225 on vault. Martin would go on to tie Oklahoma's Taylor Spears for the vault title, inking a season-high 9.900. For the second meet in a row, Emily Barrett (Norman, Okla.) opened the vault lineup with a stuck performance, this time in-front of her hometown crowd in Oklahoma. Chilean Olympian Simona Castro (Santiago, Chile) turned in a season-high as well with a 9.800, and juniors Kaitlin Moorhead (Palo Alto, Calif.) and Pulgarin Linero went 9.875 and 9.850, respectively.

The Pioneers floor corps combined for a 48.800 in the third rotation. After a 9.750 opening performance from Ellese Sakai-Hart (Aptos, Calif.), Laughlin, who was a late addition to the lineup after Pulgarin Linero was scratched during the touch warm-up (foot), inked a 9.800. McGee would later turn in a 9.800 of her own, and the first-year duo would lead Denver in the event. In addition to Pulgarin Linero's absence from Denver's floor lineup, senior all-arounder Brianna Springer (Arvada, Colo.) did not make the trip to Norman (flu).

"Maggie did a great job stepping in for Mel on floor tonight," Kutcher-Rinehart said. "She stepped in with just a three-minute touch, and performed some really strong gymnastics with a lot of confidence. I'm really proud of how our athletes have been able to step in, in tough situations this season."

McGee led Denver in its final rotation with a 9.875 on beam. Martin received a 9.825 on the apparatus to finish her night with a 39.300 in the all-around. Denver scored a 48.800 on the event to finish the meet with a 195.850.

"I'm really proud of Nina McGee," Kutcher-Rinehart said. "She went last on floor and last on beam with falls in-front of her, but she didn't just go out and try to get through it. She really went out with a calm confidence and aggressiveness and nailed her routines."

The Crimson and Gold finished with 13 scores of 9.800 or higher on the night. DU will head to Fayetteville next week to take on No. 9 Arkansas on Friday at 6 p.m. MT.