Meet 3: Gymnastics vs. Nebraska

Saturday, January 19

Piscataway, N.J.

1:00 PM

Rutgers University

Nebraska

Photo by: Justin Tafoya/Clarkson Creative

Jan 16 | Women's Gymnastics

Parking Registration Notes Live Results Twitter Updates Flipcard Fact Book

Free admission to all home meets in 2019

RUTGERS vs. NEBRASKA
January 19, 2019 • 1 p.m. ET
Livingston Gym • Piscataway, N.J.

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Following two road meets, Rutgers gymnastics opens the home portion of its schedule by hosting Nebraska in a Big Ten dual set for Saturday at 1 p.m. inside the Livingston Gym. Rutgers Athletics is offering free admission and parking to all four home gymnastics meets this season through the "R Dollar, Your Game" initiative. To ensure free parking this weekend, guests must register their vehicle here to comply with a new University policy.

Live results will be available on ScarletKnights.com and @RUGymnastics will tweet scores throughout the meet. Doors to the Livingston Gym will open at 11:30 a.m.

PROMOTIONS

Military Appreciation Day
First Responder's Day
Block R magnet giveaway (500 red, white and blue)
Poster giveaway
Post meet autographs
T-Shirt tosses

RUTGERS MEET PREVIEW
The Scarlet Knights jumped up to a 193.175 last Saturday at Bridgeport. Both junior Kaitlyn Hall (vault) and sophomore Belle Huang (balance beam) claimed first-place finishes to highlight the meet. Hall posted a career-high 9.800 vault, as the team totaled a 48.775 in the last rotation to score best on the event for the second-straight week. For Huang, the 9.825 beam routine was the best Rutgers score of the meet. She competed all-around with three marks of at least 9.750, while senior Michelle Amoresano performed all four events for the first time since the 2017 Big Ten Championships to a 38.075.

Huang owns the best individual score on the team early on with a 9.850 on floor exercise in the season opener at the Cancun Classic. In addition, sophomore Toni Williams reached 9.800 on vault week one as well.

All four Rutgers freshmen have previously broken into the lineup, with Mia Betancourt competing on three events (vault, balance beam, floor exercise) and Kiera Doherty-Herwitz (balance beam), Abigail Karolewski (uneven bars) and Sage Littlejohn (balance beam) additionally seeing action. Amoresano owns the most experience on the roster with 38 meets for the Scarlet Knights.

With Saturday being a dual meet, action will alternate between events with one routine on display. RU will begin on vault before moving to uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise. Nebraska, ranked No. 15 nationally, will move in the order of uneven bars, vault, floor exercise and balance beam. The Cornhuskers last visited New Jersey for the 2017 Big Ten Championships held at the RAC, also traveling to the Livingston Gym earlier that season.

COACH SALIM-BEASLEY Q&A
On improvements last weekend: "We really focused on competition readiness and being able to keep our focus from start to finish. We talked a lot about potential scenarios we could take. The ones that were within our control and ones that were not within our control. We talked about positive solutions to be able to handle them without being overwhelmed, and I think they really kept that in mind. Our competition lineups really stayed focused up to the point when they were ready to compete, that made a tremendous difference. I think that they were more prepared to be able to handle any situation that they were able to come up against. We were just really pleased that they were able to translate that from what we were doing in the gym to in competition.

"As a team, it was a great confidence booster, even though the routines could have had better performance level, but they were able to handle the little mistakes without making them become bigger. This proved to them that they were capable and I think we are going to be able to build upon that because they were able to see what they can do, even if things were not perfect, the way they wanted them to be, they were still able to come out with a really good outcome."

On staying home this weekend: "This team is extremely excited to be able to be at home. Of course, it takes a lot out of them when we have to travel, so being at home is going to be great for them to be in front of a home crowd. The energy will definitely be higher, but that is a double-edged sword as well because the pressure is a little bit higher competing at home, but we are trying to continue to mentally prepare them for this dual meet format. Letting them know that it is going to be a little different than what we had in our past two meets with the spotlight being on the individual competitor for each event. I think they understand and have the mindset to be able to handle this."

On getting excited to go against a Big Ten foe: "I think they treat each meet as it comes and they do not really focus on who the competition is, whether it is a Division III school or a Big Ten school. We just have to go out there and do our best, no matter who we are competing against."

UP NEXT
The Scarlet Knights will head out to Iowa for the second of five-straight Big Ten dual meets on Jan. 26 at 5 p.m. The next home meet is Feb. 2 at 3 p.m. versus Maryland at the RAC.

Follow Rutgers Athletics on Facebook and Twitter (@RUAthletics) for all of the latest news and updates. For specific updates regarding women's gymnastics, follow the program on Twitter (@RUGymnastics), Facebook (/RUGymnastics), Instagram (@rutgersgymnastics) and Snapchat (rutgersgym).