Gymnastics suffer fall from grace
No one dropped the Olympic torch as they ran through Cache Valley spreading the spirit Wednesday. Unfortunately for the Aggies, their spirit fell four routines into the meet as they dropped their first home meet of the year since hosting Cal State Fullerton on Jan. 4.
BYU defeated the Aggies 195.425-191.925 in the Spectrum.
The Utah State University gymnastics team was forced to count a fall on every event, compared to one fall the Cougars had to count.
“It was certainly disappointing the way we started on vault,” USU Head Coach Ray Corn said. “All of a sudden having two unexpected falls [on vault] really took it out of us.”
Following what looked to be a promising start on the event after the first three competitors, two of the next three routines resulted in falls.
“We threw some harder vaults,” senior Jessenia Abrego said. “It just wasn’t there. We weren’t there [Wednesday].”
Putting pressure on themselves after missing routines on vault, the bars performance was hindered and unexpected, Corn said.
Abrego struggled on the bars, missing an element of her bar routine because one of her grips got twisted, although she did not fall.
Abrego led the Aggies in the all-around competition with a 38.175, followed by junior Nicole Kilpatrick (37.825) and sophomore Mika Love Houston (37.475).
A few bright spots were found on the event though as senior Kirra Seeley and freshman Katie Rutherford both turned in 9.825 for a season high and career high, respectively. Kilpatrick also recorded a season-high 9.800.
Seeley’s performance included dislocating her shoulders. Former Olympian Missy Marlowe noted in a Sportswest broadcast that the move can be dangerous practicing over and over again.
“Kirra had a wonderful meet,” Corn said.
She also scored a 9.800 on beam and a 9.650 in a crowd-pleasing floor routine.
“[Rutherford] had a great bar routine,” Corn said.
Following her bar performance, Rutherford scored a 9.325 after falling off the beam.
“I’ve been having some trouble with beam at meets,” Rutherford said. “I’m confident with beam, I hit it every day at practice. I just think I need some more experience maybe.”
Kilpatrick led the Aggies with a 9.825 on the beam.
After three events, USU trailed the Cougars by 2.775 points (146.550-143.775).
“We just dug ourselves in a hole so deep there was no way we were coming back,” Corn said.
Even though the Aggies knew the Cougars were a good team, Rutherford said she was a little surprised.
“I heard BYU was a tough team to beat but we won last year here,” she said. “I was thinking if we all hit [we could win], we just had a rough meet [Wednesday].”
Corn described the meet as the team’s “poorest performance of the year.”
The Aggies will continue to compete at home as they host the University of Utah Lady Utes Feb. 15. The Utes are currently ranked No. 1 in the country and are led by all-around junior Theresa Kulikowski