For the third year in a row, the gymnastics team is returning to the ECAC finals. After placing a close second last year and winning it all the year before that, this year, it returns again, riding the momentum of a stellar performance by Jorden Mitchell ’17, which secured a victory in the team’s home finale.
Mitchell scored a 39.050 overall, notching the Bears their fifth win of the season. On the floor, Mitchell scored a career high of 9.900, enough to win her the ECAC Gymnast of the Week award and her sixth floor title of the season.
The Bears now move ahead to the finals, which they enter leading the field in regional qualifying score, slightly ahead of Cornell and William and Mary. In addition to ranking first in the ECAC, they rank seventh in the Northeast region and 52nd nationwide. At the individual level, Mitchell ranks fourth in RQS with 38.65 and teammate Caroline Morant ’17 ranks second, with a score of 38.705. Each has a chance to win the ECAC individual title with a strong finish at the upcoming meet.
Before the ECAC final, Mitchell won the All-Around title at the Ivy Classic, helping the Bears to a share of the team title in a tie with Cornell. Mitchell has been a driving force behind the Bears’ success all year, leading the team with six all-around titles.
For her career-high score en route to a Bears win and a trip to the ECAC finals, Mitchell has been named the Herald’s Athlete of the Week.
Herald: You guys just won your fifth meet of the season. What did you think of the team’s performance this year?
Mitchell: We’ve been doing really well. I would say we’re surprised, but we’re not — we’ve trained really hard and we have a lot of talent, so it’s not a surprise. We went into Ivies knowing that we were the better team and that we were going to win, and having that confidence definitely makes you perform better. It’s been really awesome that we’ve been having a great year — we’re really happy and we’ve had a lot of fans this year, so it’s awesome. It’s always awesome to win a meet at home in front of family and friends.
Tell me about when you scored a career-high 9.900 at the most recent meet.
It was really exciting — I’ve never gotten a 9.900 before. I would say my teammates were more excited than I was, so it’s really awesome to know that they’re equally as excited for you when you do well. We always have each other’s backs, and I couldn’t do it without them.
You finished first, and you had teammates finish second and fifth. The entire team must have been working really well.
Yeah. On the floor, on everything.
You’ve got the ECAC championship on Saturday. How much does that mean for the team?
A lot. It’s equally as important to us as winning Ivies, and it’s a little bit harder than Ivies because there are more teams, and we’ve only ever won once in program history, our freshman year. We’re looking to do that again and hopefully get another ring.
You rank fourth in the ECAC with an RQS of 38.615 — what does that mean?
It means that I’m in the running for hopefully looking at an ECAC all-around title. It’s going to be really hard, obviously, I’m still in fourth, but I’m not really focusing on where I’m going to place individually. The team goal is more important than the individual goal.
Overall, how do you feel about the team going forward?
I’m really excited. We’re looking really good. We’ve been practicing really hard, training really hard all year, so going forward we only have ECACs and Nationals left. We’re looking to do really well in Nationals as well, and make team finals at Nationals … but you know, take one step at a time. Focus on the baby goals, and then the overall goals will hopefully come.
