After losing two consecutive meets, Towson came out on top this week, beating Ursinus and Brockport 192.650-187.875-184.750.

Despite a couple of falls on the beam, the team set many career-high scores.

Sophomore Allison Antenucci had a career-high on the uneven bars with a score of 9.875. This is her first season competing bars for Towson and the first time she’s hit her actual routine.

“I think that Ally is capable of this every week,” Head Coach Vicki Chliszczyk said. “She just needs more confidence. And being able to do that today is just going to help her come back into the gym and go into the next meet with more confidence. She kind of had improvised the last couple of routines, so it’s great to see that the real bar routine that is planned will score very well for us.”

Senior Lindsay Poplaski had a strong meet, scoring a career-high on bars with a 9.700. Her 38.750 all-around score is also a career-high, according to Chliszczyk.

“Lindsay has just been a constant rock for us,” she said. “This is the fifth meet that she’s competed all-around, and this is the fifth meet that she’s hit. She doesn’t always come away with the highest scores on each event. She leads us off on beam where typically the scores are lower. She’s second up on bars, but she’s been a very solid competitor for us and that has helped us tremendously.”

For the second time this season senior Kacy Catanzaro scored a 39.000 as an all-around.

Junior Britney Russell returned to the lineup after being out the past couple of weeks with a back injury. While she hasn’t returned full time, having her back to score a 9.750 on vault helped the team.

“She’s a three-event kid and she only competed in vault today. So no, she’s definitely not back,” Chliszczyk said. “She’s our floor anchor, so we’re missing her from the floor lineup, and we need to get her back on beam as well.”

Senior Avis Hixon has continued to improve on the uneven bars, scoring third-best on the team and in the meet with a 9.775.

“Every time Avis gets out there on bars she gets more confident, and that’s really all that she needs: to trust her routine and the work that she’s done at the gym,” Chliszczyk said.

Hixon also placed third on the team and the meet as an all-around. She scored 38.325 and, according to Chliszczyk, has been a good addition to the all-around competitors.

“It’s great to have a senior who can step up into that leadership role and compete all-around when we need it,” she said. “[Hixon] was given that opportunity because we lost Britney with the back injury, so it’s great to see her step in and be able to do that for us.”

Even though the team isn’t hitting all 24 routines in a meet, Chliszczyk said she isn’t worried, saying that injuries are a factor in the balance beam’s lack of recent success.

“It does hurt when we’ve got some people out of the beam lineup because of injuries, but it just gives others the opportunity to step up and compete,” she said. “We just need them to trust themselves and to hit for us.”

This week, the Tigers compete at home in the Shelli Calloway Memorial Invitational, which is also the team’s alumni meet. Chliszczyk said the team needs to continue to hit and improve.

“As much as we keep having some of these events that aren’t going well, every meet so far, pretty much except one, changes are being made and we’re definitely getting better, and that’s being noticed,” she said. “It’s being noticed by the judges, it’s being noticed by the other teams, and so when we’re able to put it all together, I think we’ll surprise a lot of people.”