Shreveport – The Centenary gymnastics team welcomes Texas Woman's University to the Gold Dome on Saturday for the Ladies' first home meet of the season with first rotation set for 6 p.m.
Centenary opened its 2020 season with a third-place finish in Corvallis, Ore. Last weekend as the Ladies competed against host and nationally-ranked Oregon State and Seattle Pacific at Gill Coliseum. The Maroon and White finished with a score of 182.625 in its first meet of the season.
"We are excited to begin our four meet home series this weekend," said head coach Jackie Fain. We started our season last week on the road at Oregon State University. It wasn't what I would call a smashing success, but it was our highest team total for our first meet of the season in three years.
"It was a great experience for the freshman who competed, being in a big arena against a top Division I school. We are looking forward to making improvements this week at home, and possibly seeing a few more faces in our line-ups."
Senior Cami Bea Austin (Memphis, Tenn.) tied for first place in the All-Around competition with a final score of 36.775 along with Seattle Pacific's Darian Burns. Ladies' freshman Kendall Huff (Riviera, Texas) finished third with a score of 36.500 and Centenary sophomore Kendall Sanders (Spring Branch, Texas) placed fourth with a score of 36.250.
"I'm looking forward to an outstanding season from senior Cami Bea Austin, and sophomore All-American Kendall Sanders. They have both had a good pre-season and should be on top of our standings again this year. The rest of our returners have also been working hard and will be debuting some upgrades as well as hoping to compete some new events this year."
Austin earned Centenary's best finish on the vault, placing fifth with a score of 9.775. Huff placed 10th with a score of 9.625. Sanders placed 11th in the Uneven Parallel Bars competition, Centenary's top finisher in the event with a score of 9.200. Austin earned two more top-10 finishes, placing 10th in the Balance Beam competition with a score of 9.575 and tying for seventh in the Floor Exercise competition with a score of 9.675.
Saturday's meet will be the first of four straight at home for the Ladies as they welcome Cortland to town on Saturday, Jan. 25 at 6 p.m. and then host Texas Woman's for a second time on Friday, Feb. 7 at 6 p.m. and will finish off the weekend with a meet against Winona State on Sunday, Feb. 9 at 2 p.m. Centenary's final home meet of the season will be held on Sunday, March 1 against Southeast Missouri State at 2 p.m.
"Our schedule this year is quite challenging. We have teams from Division I ranked as high as number 2 and number 6 in the final NCAA rankings last year, as well our conference and our national champions, along with many other great teams from all divisions slated for 2020. Being able to compete against so many great teams at every division presents a unique challenge in collegiate athletics; rising to the level of competition each and every week is our goal."
Live stats and live video are available for all home meets and admission is FREE to all Centenary home athletic events. #GoCentenary #CTheOpportunity
