Defending the home turf is a theme that resonates throughout all walks of life, not just sports.
Considering the Ohio State women’s gymnastics team was not only defending its home turf this weekend, but also its title as the No. 1 program in the state, it is easily understandable why the Buckeyes placed such importance on winning the All-Ohio Championships Saturday in St. John Arena.
Although only two other teams — Kent State and Bowling Green — competed against OSU in the meet, the Buckeyes needed a victory to cement their status as top dog in the area. They did just that, scoring a season-high 196.650 to beat each of its opponents by a healthy margin.
“You want to show you’re the best team in Ohio, so it’s definitely all about pride,” said junior Tiffanie Janke during preparation for the meet. “We are a good team, we’ve been getting a lot of wins recently and putting up some good scores, so we’re looking to prove we can keep winning and keep improving our scores at the same time.”
Janke helped lead the Buckeyes to victory over both Ohio opponents this weekend, as she was one of two OSU gymnasts to score a perfect 10 on the vault. The other was freshman Jill Weber.
Although impressive individual numbers might be highly appreciated by certain athletes, Janke said she pays little attention to those things, and takes much more satisfaction knowing that her team is hot.
“I don’t look at my individual scores very much,” Janke said. “The outcome is all about the team, anyway, so I don’t really follow what I’m doing personally or where I’m ranked in a certain event.”
Even though it may not mean much to her, seeing Janke enter this weekend’s competition ranked No. 10 in the nation on the beam helps her teammates. Sophomore Elizabeth Meaney said strong individual performances have helped team cohesion during the team’s recent hot streak. The Buckeyes have defeated seven of the last nine teams they’ve faced.
“I know, personally, that I am extremely more confident recently, especially in my teammates,” Meaney said. “We all have a lot of confidence in what everyone else on the team is doing now, and that’s pretty hard to come by these days.”
With only two regular season meets before the Big Ten championships, the Buckeyes hope the recent trend of improving their score continues. The past two competitions have seen season-high marks broken, and the elusive 197 score coach Larry Cox is striving for is certainly within reach.
“We’re looking to stay consistent and maybe start raising certain things up a notch or two, whether it be landing on floor exercises or sticking landings on vaulting and dismounts off beam,” Cox said when asked last week about his hopes for the upcoming practices. “All the routines are coming together really well, so now we just need a few of the finesse things to come together.”
