Topic: Gymnastics

The gymnastics team tumbled into the new season over winter break, placing third in its home opener against Towson University and the University of Bridgeport. The Bears also traveled to Rutgers University, where they notched 184.725 points in a fourth-place finish against the host Scarlet Knights, Penn and the University of North Carolina.

The gymnastics team boasts six new freshman additions. Runners-up in the Ivy League last year, the team will now look for contributions from that young talent in order to make a run at the title and reach other team aspirations.

Carli Wiesenfeld ’12 didn’t know she had to compete on the beam — in addition to bars, vault and floor — until she was in the locker room pre-meet, donning her leotard.

“If you like peeling pieces of skin the size of quarters off of your hands, bars are for you,” says Haley Graham, the bad-ass gymnast in the film “Stick It,” pleasantly describing the appeal of the uneven parallel bars in women’s gymnastics. Brown has its own bad-ass on bars: Julia Meyer ’13.

Katie Goddard ’12 isn’t afraid of a little pain. A nasty, dinner-plate-sized bruise, undoubtedly the result of a tumble gone awry, colored her backside as she took the floor by storm Feb. 14. She’s not scared of the competition, either. She earned the top spot on floor, edging out a former Olympian by one-tenth of a point.

Do a backflip. Do it gracefully and with a smile on your face. Do it on a four-inch-wide, leather-bound steel beam, four feet off the ground. And you’d better stick the dismount. That was beam standout Julia Meyer’s ’13 task on Sunday. And that’s exactly what she did.

The gymnastics team is no stranger to Olympic athletes. Though U.S. gymnast Alicia Sacramone left the Pizzitola Center two years ago for Beijing, an Olympian re-entered the arena on Sunday, this time as an opponent.