Temple University Athletics
Owls Ready for Liberty Classic
2.1.07 | Women's Gymnastics
Feb. 1, 2007
PHILADELPHIA - Don't let the Temple women's gymnastics teams' record of 0-5 fool you. Despite the fact that they've yet to win a meet, the Owls are currently ranked fourth in the ECAC conference, which happens to be the largest conference in the nation. Their 187.900 score last week at Penn helped to secure the number four ranking. This weekend, the Owls will host West Chester, Bridgeport, Ursinus and Penn for the Liberty Classic. The competition is set to begin at 12:30 p.m. at McGonigle Hall.
Senior Noelle Moore is coming off an outstanding meet where she posted scores of 9.750 on balance beam and 9.775 on the floor exercise. The Owls will look to her, along with fellow senior co-captains Jillian Kornett and Sarah Liebowitz to lead the charge. Sophomore Winter Sneed is also reeling after her season-high 9.750 beam score at last weekend's competition.
First-year head coach Aaron Murphy is very pleased with his team's progress thus far.
"We posted a great team score last week at Penn. I'm looking for this entire team to continue improving as we head into the Liberty Classic. We're not even close to being at our peak yet," said Murphy.
Coach Murphy now finds himself in a predicament most coaches dream of; which is deciding who his top six are on each event. The uneven bars and balance beam could very well see some fresh faces, most notably Natasha Crawford.
"Natasha is still having some problems with her jaeger release on the uneven bars, but her beam has been looking very good. She's definitely fighting for a spot in the lineup on those two events," said Murphy.
Murphy got a nice surprise while at the Penn meet last week. Crawford's old teammate from Atlanta, Courtney Bumpers, is now attending law school at Penn. Crawford informed Bumpers of the fact that Temple is without a balance beam coach. Bumpers, who also happens to be a two-time NCAA Division I national floor exercise champion (2004-05 while competing for the University of North Carolina) has offered her expertise on the difficult event and is now Temple's new volunteer beam coach.
"To have Courtney offer to help our women on the beam is just incredible. Although she only has time to be with us once a week, the fact that she's willing to help should make a huge difference with how our girls compete beam," said Murphy.
The Temple women will enjoy a weekend off from competition before heading to Towson on February 17 for the Shelli Calloway Towson Invitational.
