Tough competition to challenge tested Aggie gymnastics
Experience is already playing a vital role for the USU women’s gymnastics team this season.
Even though their first meet was a second-place finish Jan. 7 to Sacramento State in which the Aggies posted a 190.00 score, Head Coach Ray Corn wasn’t in the least bit displeased.
“I was extremely pleased with the team’s outing at Sacramento State,” Corn said in a USU press release Wednesday. “It was probably one of the strongest opening meets USU has ever had.”
That’s no small statement for the only women’s gymnastics coach USU has ever had, a coach who is in his 30th year here.
Corn has reason to be optimistic for this season, which continues Friday with a road meet against the Washington Huskies.
His team was ranked 34th in the preseason coaches’ poll. A big reason for that is the fact that 12 gymnasts are back from last year’s squad which finished ranked 42nd in the nation. Nine of the 15 athletes on the roster are upperclassmen.
The Huskies, which were ranked 36th in the preseason coaches’ poll, are in the same boat, returning 10 of 11 letterwinners from their 2006 squad.
The experience the Aggies boast will certainly be a factor to help them come away with a victory in the Huskies’ Hec Edmundson Pavilion, where they are 0-5 all-time.
USU leads the all-time series against Washington 10-8.
In 2006 the Aggies hosted the Huskies and posted their second-highest score of the season with a 193.350 to the Huskies’ 190.400.
Senior all-arounder Alex Martin, a native of Longmont, Colo., is questionable for Friday’s meet due to a groin injury.
A closer look at USU
Five seniors are back for the Aggies.
Included in that number is all-arounder Ashley Barr, who sat out the 2006 season due to injury.
Meagan Lewis, Rachael Mandy and Jessica Parenti-Otte also return as fifth-year seniors.
In the all-around competition last season, Parenti-Otte led the team with a personal-best score of 39.275 and is again expected to lead the team in that category in 2007.
Right behind her is Lewis, who has a 39.175 personal best in the all-around. Lewis and Parenti-Otte will be joined in the all-around by Martin and junior Katie Omann.
Omann, Mandy and Nicki Felley, who all competed well in the vault last season, will again lead the Aggies in that area this season.
Parenti-Otte, Ana Rickard, and Megan Tschida will be the frontrunners for USU on the floor exercise.
And, on the balance beam, Martin will shine along with some of the freshmen.
The Aggies will have solid competition coming to the Spectrum. On Jan. 22 they welcome Brigham Young University, who finished last season as the No. 30 team in the country. On Feb. 9 the Aggies will also host the Utes of the University of Utah, a team that finished the 2006 campaign as the No. 2 ranked team in the nation.
Minnesota, last year’s No. 19 team, visits Logan March 17.
With that kind of a schedule, Corn is nevertheless expecting it to be a season of fulfilled potential for his squad.
“We have lofty goals of a conference championship,” Corn said.
-sbhislop@cc.usu.edu