Gymnasts ready for Regionals
Even after a rough start to its season, the Utah State gymnastics team is exactly where it wants to be going into regionals – 16th in the nation.
The No. 16 ranking is the highest regular season final ranking for the Aggies since 1997 when they were ranked No. 11.
At the Western Gymnastics Conference, Utah State faced rivals Boise State – defending champion two years in a row – and Southern Utah, along with CS Fullerton at team the Ags had not faced up against in the regular season. The Aggies came out with a roar and captured first place with an overall score of 195.150.
“It was amazing. It was one of the best feelings ever,” Liesel Kohler said about the meet. “The next best feeling was getting 16th [place] in the nation.”
Kohler competed on the beam and the floor and said the meet was “a highlight of my life and my career.”
Utah State competed first on vault, the event that, before the meet, head coach Ray Corn said would make or break the competition.
“We’re very excited. We knew we were going to be much improved this year but how good we were going to be, it was too early to tell,” he said.
Corn’s foresight regarding the vault was almost prophetic. The team was near perfect in the event, scoring its second highest score of the year, a 48.925. Freshman Jackie Fogli had a personal best and senior Katie Rutherford also set a season high.
On the bars, which has given USU a hard time the whole season, Jessica Parenti placed at third. While on the beam, Ashley Barr led the way, followed by Parenti and Kohler who tied for third place. Kohler then took that enthusiasm to the floor where she won the event.
All of the gymnasts who finished in top-three positions received all-conference honors. Alex Martin and Rutherford also received all-conference honors on the bars, Barr on the beam and Fogli and Megan Tschida on the floor. Corn also received the WGC Coach of the Year award.
One of the team’s goal was to wear a championship ring this season and the team achieved it. What Corn called character and consistency came tumbling through as they also achieved the goal of getting back into the regional meet.
“Our last goal is to get to nationals. That is what we are attempting to do,” Corn said.
The win and their previous ranking guaranteed the Aggies a place at their regional competition. They will head to Tuscaloosa, Ala., for the Saturday night meet.
“We feel very comfortable about going down to Alabama,” Corn said. He also said the team just needed to overcome the 12 hour journey.
“We don’t care about coming back home,” he said. “We just want to be rested getting there.”
Corn said Alabama will be the Aggies’ hardest competition.
“We have to go in there like we own the place and like we deserve to be there,” Martin said. “No matter what anybody says we definetly deserve everything we’ve gotten so far.”
She said that the team is ready for anything.
This will be the first the Aggies have qualified for the regional competition since 2002. The only Aggie gymnasts who have made it to regionals before are co-captains, Rachel Ropelato and Rutherford. It is their first conference title.
The event will be hosted at 7 p.m. Saturday by the No. 1 seed, Alabama. Alabama is followed by Iowa State, Utah State, Auburn, Kentucky and Kent State. From there the top two teams will advance to the nationals. The last time that USU finished in the top three at regional was in 1999 where they had their best ever regional finish of third place.
-vramirez@cc.usu.edu