One Sunday afternoon intrasquad meet, one huge boost of confidence for the UW women’s gymnastics team.

Husky gymnasts took to the floor —and the vault, bars and balance beam — for the first time this season in a formal competition setting for a friendly Purple versus Gold contest. At stake was valuable competition experience, and perhaps more importantly, who would have to do the cooking for the team’s upcoming Christmas party.

The Purple team won 77.775-77.125, but nobody, even the gymnasts, seemed to pay much attention to which half of the team prevailed.

“I am thrilled with how the girls competed, and that’s what we wanted to see,” coach Joanne Bowers said. “They were aggressive — they competed well.”

Despite falling off the beam on her front flip mount, junior Natalie Gillan won the all-around with a combined score of 38.325. Senior Chelsea Bakken placed second with a 38.050, and senior Tori Quandt scored 37.025 for third.

Gillan also posted a 9.8 on vault, punctuating her complicated effort with a nearly stuck landing and drawing an appreciative cheer from the crowd in Hec Edmundson Pavilion.

Bowers said she was pleased with Gillan’s performance, but not surprised. The junior from Denver has been working hard in training, she said.

“Natalie, I thought, stepped it up and did well,” she said. “We didn’t have a lot of surprises.”

That is not to say there isn’t room for improvement. Six of the 11 who competed on beam fell or had a large error in their routines.

“We need to improve the little things,” Gillan remarked. “Everyone proved today they can do a routine and now it’s just the little things.”

Bakken agreed.

“I think we just need to get more numbers under our belts,” she said. “We definitely just need more numbers, more experience.”

Sophomore Ashley Houghting tied sophomore Kelly Gilbert for the beam title and earned the highest score of the competition, a 9.85, on floor exercise. Junior Raimey Iselin performed only on bars but won the event with a 9.7.

“Today was to show everyone what hard work we’ve been putting in all fall,” Houghting said.

Gilbert, who has been recovering from shoulder surgery, put up a 9.775 on balance beam and a 9.8 on floor exercise. Until Friday afternoon, Bowers said she did not think Gilbert was ready to do floor because of the limited time she’s had to tumble on a hard surface in training.

Gilbert felt otherwise, so Bowers made her a deal: If Gilbert could perform a full floor routine in Friday’s practice, she could compete it during the intrasquad.

Gilbert came into the gym Friday and performed her first full routine in months. Bowers was convinced, and yesterday, Gilbert smiled her way through her floor performance and landed on her feet on all three of her tumbling passes. Her reward: the second-highest score of the meet.

“She did a great job,” Bowers said.

The intrasquad meet gave freshmen Cassidy Lance, Bonita Lee and Celia Short got their first taste of Husky-style competition. Short, whom Bowers called “a little competitor,” hit her routines on bars and floor. Her 9.675 on bars was the second highest of the meet on that event.

Although the intrasquad meet does not count toward the regular season, it means something for members of the Gold team, who now have to plan a menu for the Christmas party.

Reporter Blythe Lawrence: blythelawrence@thedaily.washington.edu