2019 Gymnastics Review

Photo by: Ben Solomon

May 22 | Women's Gymnastics

Scarlet Knights entered new era under head coach Umme Salim-Beasley

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Under a new head coach, but returning a familiar face, Rutgers gymnastics exceeded expectations and set a foundation under Umme Salim-Beasley and her staff. The Scarlet Knights scored as high as 196.050, earned two Big Ten wins over ranked opponents and saw a gymnast score a 9.900 at NCAA Regionals among other accomplishments in 2019.

"I think everything came together better than we had expected," Salim-Beasley said. "Initially coming in we knew that there was going to be a lot of change taking place. A lot of times when it's a new staff it takes a little longer for the change to happen because implementing new ways of doing things, it takes a little while for people to catch hold and understand the purpose behind it. But I think this team was extremely receptive to the changes that we put in place and were really open and looking forward to it. They embraced it and were able to catch hold of it a lot quicker than we had expected."

SEASON NOTABLES

Leading wire-to-wire, the Scarlet Knights recorded a 196.050, the second highest team mark in program history, on Feb. 9 at the RAC to top No. 25 Penn State for the first time ever in front of a crowd of 2,043 and Big Ten Network cameras.
Posting a 194.650 at the Big Five meet on Feb. 23, Rutgers topped No. 22 Ohio State for its second Big Ten win of the season. The Scarlet Knights had two combined regular season Big Ten wins in the previous four years. RU also leaped Michigan State in the final Big Ten regular season standings.

"Being able to have two conference wins in one year was something that we didn't even realize, but we're happy to see that happen," Salim-Beasley said. "And then the 196 was definitely something that we thought that we would be able to do years later, but not in year one. It definitely helped boost the confidence in the team in knowing that they were capable of competing with pretty much any team in the country."

The Scarlet Knights finished the season having recorded a 194 or better in the last nine meets and in 10 of the last 11.
Individually, the highest score achieved was a 9.925, done multiple times on three different events. Both sophomore Belle Huang and senior Riahanah Ali achieved the score on Jan. 19 on floor exercise, while junior Shannon Farrell earned the mark on March 8 on uneven bars. It was the highest bars number by a Scarlet Knight since 2003. Huang tied the program record with a 9.925 on balance beam on Feb. 9 and led the way with a career-high 39.300 all-around that night to tie for the sixth-highest number in the school record books.

"Our initial plan with this year was really just being able to get the team healthy again and to be able to field full lineups. We went well above and beyond that," Salim-Beasley said. "Just being able to have our whole team healthy the whole year without any major injuries that required surgery or put people off for a long period of time was a huge success. We were able to keep that from being an issue this year. And then being able to field full lineups on every event every single meet was something that we were really pleased that we had the depth to be able to do that. It did take some time to be able to get people into those positions, but they understood the need for it and they really worked hard to be able to be a viable option."

Huang became the second Scarlet Knight to earn Second Team All-Big Ten, joining Libby Groden (2017).
She also qualified to NCAA Regionals for the second-straight year and earned a 9.900 on floor exercise at the University of Georgia. The mark tied the Rutgers gymnastics individual record on any event at the NCAA level previously achieved by Courtney Turner, also on floor exercise, in 2002.
This was the ninth consecutive year the Scarlet Knights had representation at NCAA Regionals.

"I think Belle became a more confident competitor this year," Salim-Beasley said. "She settled in quite a bit to knowing that her gymnastics was good and that she could be successful competing. I think she really kind of let loose and was able to show off a little bit more of what she could do and that helped her a lot in scoring. That freshman year, you're not really quite sure of how things work in college, but I think having that year under her belt and then having a sophomore year where she could just really let herself shine was something that she definitely did. It took her a few meets in to be able to find a consistent groove, but once she was able to kind of get past that hump in the beginning of the season she really flourished the rest of the year. There was a lot of maturity in her gymnastics this year, you could see the performance value that she had on floor as well as the confidence in the finishes that she had on the other events really helped to build towards the end of the season."

The Scarlet Knights were led by four seniors: Ali, Michelle Amoresano, Jenna Rizkalla and Eriel Santagado. All four graduated in May.
Santagado earned the Female Chancellor's Scholar-Athlete Award at the annual athletic department banquet.
Academically, the gymnastics program had 14-of-16 eligible earn Academic All-Big Ten status with a 3.0 GPA.

"I think all of the leadership that we had this year came from the senior class," Salim-Beasley said. "They really wanted to end their careers on a high note. They inspired their teammates every single day. They came into the gym and worked their hardest, and they always had words of encouragement for the underclassmen. Everything that we accomplished this year was driven by the senior class."

TEAM AWARDS

First Year Letterwinners: Abigail Karolewski, Kiera Doherty-Herwitz, Mia Betancourt, Sage Littlejohn, Emily Drauss
Second Year Letterwinners: Rachel Ley, Shannon Farrell, Belle Huang, Sophia Atienza, Toni Williams
Third Year Letterwinners: Jenna Rizkalla, Kaitlyn Hall, Polina Poliakova
Fourth Year Letterwinners: Riahanah Ali, Michelle Amoresano
Captain Award: Jenna Rizkalla, Michelle Amoresano, Riahanah Ali
Stick Queen Award: Belle Huang
Pom Pom Award: Kaitlyn Hall, Shannon Farrell
Hardest Worker Award: Michelle Amoresano
100% Hit Award (Vault): Belle Huang
Most Improved Gymnast Award: Kaitlyn Hall
Coaches' Appreciation Award: Kaitlyn Hall
Scholar-Gymnast Award: Polina Poliakova
Sportsmanship Award: Riahanah Ali
Chrystal Chollet-Norton Award: Allison Palmer
9.9 Award (Bars): Shannon Farrell
9.925 Award (Bars): Shannon Farrell
9.9 Award (Vault): Jenna Rizkalla
9.9 Award (Floor): Jenna Rizkalla, Belle Huang (x3), Riahanah Ali
9.925 Award (Floor): Riahanah Ali, Belle Huang
9.9 Award (Beam): Belle Huang
9.925 Award (Beam): Belle Huang
M.V.P. Award: Belle Huang

UP NEXT

The Scarlet Knights are set to move into the RWJBarnabas Health Athletic Performance Center this summer.

"We cannot wait to get over there," Salim-Beasley said. "I think that that's probably the question we get on a weekly basis from recruits as well as our own gymnasts. That's the biggest piece of what we're missing I think to jump up to a really high competitive level is having the facility to be able to train in, to push those upgrades and work on the more difficult skills that we were really limited on training during our season because we just lacked the space. This will be an exciting offseason."

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).