Fisk gymnast Morgan Price pleases familiar crowd at event in Lebanon

Fisk, the Nashville school that made NCAA history this month by becoming the first Historically Black College and University to put a Division I women’s gymnastics team on the floor, was the main attendance draw to the five-team meet. Approximately 1,200 fans sat in folding chairs and stood in the center’s main exhibit hall. An event official said that all 1,000 tickets at the gate were sold and many people came in after that.

Five gymnasts scattered on three other teams were from Knoxville, Chattanooga, Memphis and Murfreesboro.

“This space was built for trade shows but our dream has always been to have athletic events here and you are making that dream come true tonight,” Wilson County Mayor Randall Hutto told the crowd when he and former county commissioner Annette Stafford presented a proclamation honoring Price and the Fisk team.

Hutto said he also coached Price’s father, Chris Price, when he played basketball and baseball at Lebanon High School.

Price, who got her start at Lebanon’s Intrigue Gymnastics, finished fifth in the all-around standings with a score of 38.475 (out of 40.0). The freshman had won the all-around title four days earlier in a four-team meet at the University of Georgia. Friday’s meet with the third in a week for Fisk and its first-ever one in Tennessee.

“I thought about 700 people would be here so it was super-exciting to see this kind of crowd,” Price said.

Price’s chance to win another all-around title ended on her second event. She landed on her nose and elbows from the vault, standing up with a smile despite injuring her ankle on the fall. She received a 9.00 score in an event in which she averaged a 9.875 score in her first three meets.

“That vault dismount … I missed it,” she said. “Those things happen sometimes in gymnastics.”

Price scored a 9.825 on the uneven bars, a 9.775 on the balance beam (a routine that included two backflips on the four-inch-wide apparatus) and a 9.875 on the floor exercises.

“I was really glad I had a clean floor routine,” said Price, who has scored a 9.825 or higher in that event in the past three meets.

Ball State won the team championship with a team-record 196.55 score with team-record scores on vault (49.25) and balance beam (49.35). Fisk’s Aaliyah Reed-Hammon tied for second on balance beam with a 9.925, the highest event score for any of the Bulldogs this year. Price scored a 9.90 to win the vault title at the team’s first meet.