Gymnastics takes Clemson by storm, head coach says 'fan support here is unreal'

Assistant coach Erik Lewis and Clemson's crowd are enthused about gymnatics (Photo by Merrell Mann),

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Mon Jan 22 13:30:10 GMT-04:00 2024

CLEMSON – Gymnastics has taken Clemson by storm and is the hottest ticket in town.

The No. 19 Clemson Gymnastics team continued its impressive inaugural season after scoring season highs on both vault and floor to defeat Pitt in its first ACC meet.

The Tigers posted a 196.200 over the Panthers’ 194.775 to move to 2-0 on the season. Rebecca Wells claimed the title for the second-consecutive meet in the all-around with a score of 39.125, while Trinity Brown (vault – 9.900), Eve Jackson (tie on bars – 9.825), Kielyn McCright (beam – 9.900) and Brie Clark (floor – 9.925) each won their respective events.

In the first-ever meet for the program, a little over 8000 fans showed up. The word quickly spread, and the latest event was held in front of 8,631 fans. The event sold out, and people standing around in 24-degree weather had to be turned away.

Head coach Amy Smith was amazed.

“That's unreal. I had heard that we were pushing up until that point, and then, I think right before warmups ended, I was told that we sold our very last ticket,” Smith said. “How crazy is that? How incredible is that? Second time out, sell out. Just the fan support here is unreal. It's so cool.”

Smith said that she hopes that what is happening at Clemson can happen at other big-time programs.

“I mean, it's awesome. Clemson shows up for Clemson,” Smith said, “I mean, just the feedback from last week and the hype and the excitement coming into this. To be able to do this with the startup program, once again, I've said this before, but I really hope that other Power Fives and other schools look at this and go, wow, it can be done. We proved that today.”

Smith even noticed that the Clemson student section is beginning to understand the sport.

“It's so cool. “Once again, we feel that energy on the floor, and we want the meets to be an experience,” she said. “We want it to be an experience. When you can come in and play in a competition, that's an experience. To see them start doing that is awesome. Super cool.”

In the world of collegiate gymnastics, Clemson stands fourth overall in total attendance and seventh in average attendance this season.

And for those wondering about how meets work and about scoring, here you go:

𝑮𝒚𝒎𝒏𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒔 101

Come out to LittleJohn Coliseum today at 7 p.m. to learn all about our sport! pic.twitter.com/SQo6DoENFB
— Clemson Gymnastics (@ClemsonGym) December 8, 2023