In its final match before the postseason, the No. 18 NC State gymnastics team heads to Florida to take on the Gators, Iowa State and LIU in the final quad meet of the 2024 regular season. The pack posted a score of 196.825, placing them second behind Florida in fourth place.
With a 2-1 record in the tournament, North Carolina State finished the year with a 16-6 record. In their first year back in the ACC, the Red-White had an unblemished record, going 6-0 against conference opponents and 9-0 at home. The gymnastics team, he's one of the underrated teams here at NC State, but he's shown all year that that team has what it takes.
Leading the way was graduate student Kole Negrete, who scored a season-best 9.925 points on beam and a personal best 9.925 points on vault. In total, Negrete demonstrated her experience by recording three scores in the 9.9 or higher range.
The Wolfpack started on the bar that night, with sophomore Kylie Admites scoring a 9.725 on the team's first run. North Carolina State University had three gymnasts score above his 9.8, thanks to freshman Katie Harper and graduate students Alexis Ortega and Emily Shepherd. Shepard gave Pack the best score of 9.825 on bars.
Next came North Carolina State's highest scoring event, with the team scoring 49.375 points, just 0.1 shy of the event's season-high score. Negrete also had the highest individual score of the night with a 9.925. This score was enough for Negrete to tie for first in a three-way tie, giving him his 10th first place finish of the season.
Shepard, Ortega and junior beam specialist Macy Jennings all recorded a time of 9.875 seconds, with Harper finishing last in the group with a 9.825.
As a group, they scored at least a 49.300 in the pack's second event on the floor exercise. Senior Krista Zultevich earned her first career score above 9.900 in the third rotation. She tied with Negrete, who also scored a 9.900. North Carolina State had two freshmen scorers on the floor, with freshmen Maddie Hall and Katya Edwards scoring 9.825 and 9.800, respectively.
In the fourth and final rotation of the night, the Wolfpack scored a 49.250 on vault, tying its season-high score. Negrete scored a career-best 9.925 on vault, marking the highest individual vault score of the season at NC State. Her 9.925 score was good enough to tie for second place and land on the podium.
Sophomore Meg Adler set a new personal best with a total of 9.875 points, and Zultevich also scored a season-high 9.850 points at the meet. To round out the scores, Ortega consistently improved to achieve above his 9.800 in the final few games of the season, posting a 9.800.
With the regular season over, the Pack have their sights set on the ACC Championship, where they will be the No. 1 seed. NC State will face Pitt, Clemson and UNC in his first ACC Championship since 1984. The event will be held on Saturday, March 23rd at 7pm.
