By Alex Littlehales

Maryland Gymnastics, despite a promising inaugural season to a gymnastics power conference in the Big Ten, placed fifth out of five teams in the conferences “Big Five” meet.

Other Big Ten competitors included No. 13 Illinois, No. 9 Nebraska, Ohio State and Michigan State.

The Terps were unable to capitalize on any momentum from last week’s season high score of 196.00, as the final for this penta-meet was a season low of 194.875. Due to the five team rotation, Maryland received an extra half hour bye for the events, while every other team was on the floor competing in one of the 4 apparatuses. The added distraction, according to head coach Brett Nelligan, certainly did not help his team in terms of mental preparation.

Despite high marks from Shannon Skotchko (9.85) on the vault and sophomore Leah Slobodin (9.85) on the beam, the Terps were unable to post scores above 49.00 on any event.

Although Maryland was unable to secure a top-3 spot in the Big Five meet, they still have chances for glory. By winning the earlier morning session of the Big Ten Championships next weekend in Ann Arbor, the Terps can continue their successful season and put themselves in contention to win the championship.