The UW Oshkosh women’s gymnastics team fell at home 190.60-187.20 against their conference rival UW-Whitewater on Saturday, Feb. 13. The Titans returned home after a long road trip that involved three road meets consisting of trips to Winona State University (Minn.), The U.S Air Force Academy (Colo.) and a Quadrangular at UW-Whitewater. Head coach Lauren Karnitz said the return home was needed, however the road trip didn’t take as much of a toll on her gymnasts as she thought it would have. “I think they did as well as could have been expected.” Karnitz said. “They actually did better than I expected because we just had a meet on Tuesday and I thought that maybe they would be a little rundown, but in reality they looked like they were ready to go.” Although the loss was the same result as UWO’s last matchup with Whitewater, Karnitz said every aspect of her gymnast’s performance was near perfection. “I was definitely very happy with the way they performed” Karnitz said. “I thought our scores on floor were a little low for what we did, I think we did an amazing job on beam, I thought that the vault was phenomenal, and we put in some upgrades for the bars so we are still working out the kinks at that.” The home meet for the Titans was record-breaking, with five gymnasts setting personal records and the total team score being the highest of the season. Senior Emily Ryan participated in both the uneven bars and the vault on Saturday and said she thought her team was making some big improvements. “Each event got better and better, which made the meet that much more exciting for us.” Ryan said. “The energy never stopped. We still have some things to fix and make better, but I think this team is starting to look like a national team, and there is no better feeling than that.” Ryan was the only Titan gymnast to set two personal records against the Warhawks with a score of 9.400 on the uneven bars as well as a 9.450 on the vault. Sophomore Kasandra Stamopoulos said she thought their overall success in the meet wouldn’t come from a change of preparation, but that it would come from an increase of energy. “We didn’t prepare any differently,” Stamopoulos said. “We just had an added fire lit in all of us.” Stamopoulos said in a rivalry meet like Oshkosh versus Whitewater the stakes are always much higher and the events are much more intense. “We had a very successful week of practice leading up to this meet because we knew what needed to be done and we made sure that happened,” Stamopoulos said. The Titans gymnasts will go on the road Feb. 19 to take on UW-Stout.