Lady Flames gymnasts claim first national championship

Liberty University’s women’s gymnastics team captured its first national title on Saturday at the National Association of Intercollegiate Gymnastics Clubs (NAIGC) championships held at the Birmingham (Ala.) Jefferson Convention Complex. Three gymnasts earned gold medals in individual events.

Trailing Rhode Island and four-time defending national champion Penn State after Thursday’s and Friday’s preliminary rounds, the Lady Flames, competing in Level 9, combined for a record-setting finals score on Saturday.

“Our winning total of 113.975 is the highest score Liberty has ever put up at a national meet,” fourth-year Head Coach Jessie Lowe said after the team eclipsed Penn State (112.750), Rhode Island (109.8), and Texas A&M (109.125). “Our winning score was the highest on record for any team in the NAIGC Level 9 Team final at least in the last four years.”

Lowe said she chose to keep the results a surprise from the team until the awards presentation.

“We had the best day in finals that we’ve ever had as a team,” she said. “They went lights out on every event, so we were pretty confident that we’d done it (but) we chose not to look at the results until we went to the awards banquet and that made it really special for our team.”

Sophomore Mali Campbell struck gold on both the vault (9.85) and floor exercise (9.65) and finished second in the All-Around with a 38.2 total, behind only Grand Canyon University’s Isabella Scott (38.275). Campbell also finished sixth in both the bars (9.525) and balance beam (9.174) finals.

Freshman Charis Ng was the gold medalist on the beam with a 9.625 routine. Though she dealt with a severe heel injury and ankle problem that kept her from qualifying individually for the vault and floor exercise finals, Ng stayed mentally strong and contributed 9.825 and 9.6 scores in those respective events in the team competition.

Junior captain Sarah Dyk placed 10th in the All-Around finals with her 36.05 total after finishing fourth in the uneven bars final (9.625), just .025 points shy of a bronze medal.

Senior captain Annabella James finished fourth on the beam, also landing just off the podium with her 9.225, and placed 12th in the All-Around (35.775).

Complete results are available online.

The team’s performances in the finals set the standard and raised the bar for the Lady Flames to reach for next season, when they will seek to defend their crown.

“This team is absolutely defined by three things in my mind: toughness, commitment, and resiliency,” Lowe said. “They showed it all season and proved it at nationals.”