For most of the 19 years that Bob Nelligan has been coaching women's gymnastics at Maryland, the Terrapins have been the ugly ducklings in comparison to Dick Filbert's program at Towson.
No more. A strong freshman class has thrust Nelligan's team to the top of the East Atlantic Gymnastics League, which holds its championship meet today in College Park. Though Towson has the highest single-meet score in the league and will be among the contenders, the Terps are the team favored to end West Virginia's run of three straight conference titles.
Nationally, the Maryland women are No. 13, the highest ranking in the program's history. By comparison, West Virginia is ranked 20th and Towson 26th.
Maryland snared Gillian Cote of Fredericksburg, Va., and Laura Moon, of Scottsdale, Ariz., who are ranked first and third, respectively, in the EAGL all-around standings. The freshmen have led the Terps to their best record (21-9) in the program's 24-year existence. Barely a month into the season, the team had shattered the previous school record of 193.800 for four events by posting a 195.175 in a home meet against West Virginia and Temple on Feb. 13.
Since then, the school record before this season -- posted against Radford in 1997 -- has dropped to seventh best.
"Some of original teams are dear to my heart," said Nelligan, "But it's hard for me not to say this is the most impressive team I've worked with."
"Coming here, we had the attitude that we could really come far," Moon said, crediting first-year assistant Wendy Marshall with driving that point home. "As the year has progressed, we definitely know we can be with the big teams."
The "big teams" are schools like Arizona State and Nebraska, against whom the Terrapins competed at a meet on Feb. 28. In hostile territory, Maryland posted an eye-popping 195.200 score.
That raised the team's profile.
"Coming in, I thought of us competing and seeing how we did," Cote said. "I've realized in this sport how important it is to have a name, and for people to expect you to do well. Then it became an issue of making sure people knew how good we were, that we got our fair share of credit for what we're doing."
The Terps' performance, based on the strength of its recruits, has improved dramatically since a decade ago when the program had no scholarships and was in a state of uncertainty. The turnaround began when Deborah Yow became athletic director in 1994.
