No. 13 Spartans Continue Road Swing at NC State Saturday

#13 MICHIGAN STATE at NC STATE

DATE	Saturday, Jan. 14
TIME	4 p.m. ET
LOCATION	Raleigh, N.C. • Reynolds Coliseum
TELEVISION	ACC Network Extra
ROSTERS	Michigan State \| N C State
RESULTS	Live Results
MEET NOTES	Michigan State \| NC State
SOCIAL MEDIA	@MSU_gymnastics \| MichiganStateUniversityGymnastics \| @msu_gymnastics

RALEIGH, N.C. - No. 13 Michigan State (0-1, 0-0 B1G) stays on the road for its second meet of the season, facing NC State (0-1, 0-0 EAGL) on Saturday, Jan. 14 at NC State's Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, N.C. Action gets underway at 4 p.m. Saturday's meet will be streamed on ACC Network Extra and live results will be available, with links for both at msuspartans.com.

"We really like getting out of our conference footprint every once in awhile, as it exposes us to not only the challenges of tough competition, but different arenas, judges, and fans. The team enjoys being on the road as well," said head coach Mike Rowe. "Being on the road together helps us take our culture to the next level as we get opportunities to do more things together as a team than we'd normally do at home. We have spent the last week continuing detail work and learning to settle in while competing and staying engaged from salute to salute. We're so proud of the progress they've made and the objective is to continue making these strides, little by little, making sure to carry them over, day to day."

THE MATCHUP
MSU enters Saturday's meet ranked No. 13 in the country per Road to Nationals after scoring a 196.550 in its season opener on Jan. 6 at then-No. 7 Alabama. NC State opened its season earlier this week at UNC, on Monday, Jan. 9, posting a 195.525. Both the Spartans and Wolfpack set program-best opening meet records in their openers.

NC State is led by sixth-year head coach Kim Landrus and the Wolfpack were tabbed second in the 2023 East Atlantic Gymnastics League Preseason Poll. In its opener at UNC, senior Emily Shepard was NC State's lone all-around competitor, posting a 39.000. Sophomore Lauren Rutherford added scores of 9.800 or higher on vault, bars and floor. The Wolfpack's best event of the meet was bars, where they posted a 49.100 with four scores of 9.800 or higher. The Wolfpack return five All-EAGL honorees from 2022, including Rutherford and Shepard, as well as junior Gabrielle Diaz, sophomore Macy Jennings and senior Alexis Ortega.

MSU last faced NC State on Jan. 5, 2019, falling 193.750-191.700 at home.

LAST TIME OUT
In addition to its highest season-opening score in program history, the Spartans also recorded event scores of 49.000 or higher on every event for the first time in a season opener at Alabama. The Spartans' 196.550 opening record also tied for 15th-all- time at MSU.

MSU's top event at Alabama was vault, where the Spartans posted the third-best team score in program history with a 49.300. MSU's entire lineup scored 9.800s or higher and was led by sophomore Gabi Stephen and freshman Sage Kellerman sharing the event title with 9.900s. The Spartans' vault lineup included two 10.0 start value vaults - Kellerman's handspring pike 1/2 and freshman Nikki Smith's yurchenko 1.5.

MSU totaled team scores of 49.075 on bars, 49.000 on beam and 49.175 on floor. Junior Baleigh Garcia earned a 9.900 in the anchor spot on beam for a share of the event title, while Stephen and sophomore Skyla Schulte both scored 9.900s on floor. Nikki Smith had the highest bar score of the night for MSU with a 9.875.

SPARTAN DEBUTS
Three of six Spartan newcomers made their debut in the Green and White at Alabama. Highly-anticipated freshman Nikki Smith impressed in her debut, scoring a 9.850 on vault, 9.875 on bars and 9.850 on beam. Freshman Sage Kellerman earned a share of the vault title with a 9.900 and freshman Olivia Zsarmani competed for the Spartans on bars and beam, scoring a 9.825 and 9.750, respectively.

UP NEXT
MSU hosts Michigan for its home and conference opener on Sunday, Jan. 22 at Jenison Field House. Start time (6 p.m./7 p.m.) will be announced early next week. The meet will air nationally on the Big Ten Network.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Baleigh Garcia

Sage Kellerman

Skyla Schulte

Nikki Smith

Olivia Zsarmani