No. 12 Spartans Travel to Maryland for B1G Road Opener

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - No. 12 Michigan State is back on the road for a matchup with Maryland on Sunday, Jan. 29 in College Park for its second B1G dual meet. Action gets underway at 1 p.m., with live results available at MSUSpartans.com and streaming on B1G+.

"We're really excited to get back out on the road after last weekend's thrilling win over Michigan! Thank you Spartan fans for all of your support and in selling out Jenison and breaking our Gymnastics attendance record. We would definitely love to see you all back," said head coach Mike Rowe. "Our challenge and intent is to put those same quality routines and then some back on the floor at the Xfinity Center so we can return to East Lansing with a nice road score."

THE MATCHUP
Michigan State (2-1, 1-0 B1G) is ranked No. 12 in the most recent Road to Nationals rankings, its highest ranking since the preseason, where it also ranked at No. 12, after being ranked No. 14 in last week's rankings. Maryland (3-0, 1-0) posts the 27th-best team average in the country with a 195.650.

The Terrapins most recently notched a 195.875-195.325 win at Nebraska in their conference opener. Maryland took the top spots on bars (Victoria Gatzendorfer and Elizabeth Debarberie, 9.800) and beam (Maddie Komoroski, 9.875), while senior Emma Silberman finished second in the all-around with a 39.000.

Maryland is led by head coach Brett Nelligan in his 14th season. MSU earned a 196.875-195.950 win in last year's edition of the meet in East Lansing on Feb. 5, 2022.

LAST TIME OUT
Michigan State is coming off a historic 197.200-196.975 win over No. 3 Michigan on Jan. 22, the Spartans' first victory over the Wolverines since Feb. 3, 2007. The Spartans' win also marked Michigan's first loss in a Big Ten dual since Jan. 27, 2018.

MSU's 197.200, a season high, was the sixth-best team score in program history. The Spartans also set season highs on vault (49.400), bars (49.250) and beam (49.275). Despite having only two 10.0 start value vaults in the Spartans' lineup vs. Michigan, MSU's 49.400 tied the program record set at the NCAA Seattle Regional Finals in 2022.

MSU also captured five event titles in its win over Michigan. Freshman Nikki Smith won the all-around (39.525) and vault (9.950) titles, her all-around score tying for fifth-best in program history and vault score tying for third best. Smith also tied her career highs on beam (9.825) and floor (9.900) and posted a 9.850 on bars. Freshman Olivia Zsarmani and junior Delanie Harkness earned a share of the bars title for the second meet in a row with 9.825s, and sophomore Gabi Stephen collected her first beam title of the season with a 9.900. Stephen also finished third in the all-around with a season-best 39.425.

NIKKI SMITH COLLECTS B1G WEEKLY HONORS
Freshman Nikki Smith was named Big Ten Gymnast of the Week and Freshman of the Week on Jan. 24, becoming the first MSU gymnast to collect B1G weekly honors this season. Smith is first Spartan gymnast to earn both honors in the same week since Skyla Schulte on March 8, 2022. She shared the Big Ten Gymnast of the Week award with Iowa's Adeline Kenlin and Rutgers' Hannah Joyner.

UP NEXT
Michigan State returns to Jenison Field House to host Penn State on Saturday, Feb. 4 at 7 p.m. The meet will serve as the Spartans' National Girls and Women in Sports Day celebration.