Dec. 11, 2011

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The Maryland acrobatics and tumbling team showcased its strengths Saturday night with its annual Intrasquad meet at the Comcast Center Pavilion.

The team was divided into two teams - Red and Black - for much of the meet but competed together in the pyramid and team routine rounds. The Red team beat the Black team 280.360 to 279.525.

"I'm so proud of the girls tonight," head coach Laura Chiriaco said. "They really shined tonight, especially in the team routine. I'm so proud of the stunts hitting solid. We had to make a lot of last minute adjustments, even as late as Thursday night and Friday afternoon. They handled it like professionals and hit their stunts clean. They fought hard in the pyramid. I'm as happy as could be."

"Corrine Schultheis, Sam Golklang, Nija White, and Shelbe Mascaro hit both of their partner stunts in the team routine after having only one day to practice together due to an injury Thursday night at practice. I'm really proud of them for stepping up when we needed them to."

The meet started off in the compulsories round. Both teams' pyramid heats received perfect scores of 10.0. Red narrowly won the pyramid round 39.28 to 39.23.

Moving onto the stunt round, Black edged Red, 27.76 to 25.94. In the final event before halftime, the team competed all together in its pyramid to earn a score of 28.125. Black led Red 96.115 to 93.345 at the break.

In the tosses round, Team Red began chipping away at Black's lead with a score of 28.81 to 28.25. In the tumbling event, Red's 56.25 gave it a lead. Black scored a 54.20 in tumbling.

The Terps once again competed all together in the team routine and earned a score of 101.96.

"Our partner stunts and our team routine looked awesome," Chiriaco said. "Our partner stunts overall were really strong, so I think we're ready to add some difficulty. Since everything's so clean, we need to get that start value up."

The Terps went 9-1 in the 2010-11 season and made a run to the NCATA National Championship meet in Eugene, Ore. They return three of their six All-Americans from last year - Ali Iovino, Danielle Jenkins and Lauren Shannon.