Beam rotation still coming around, coach Corn says
Though they defeated Southern Utah University, the Aggies continued to struggle on the balance beam Friday night, posting a 47.750 – their second lowest score of the season on the beam.
However, head coach Ray Corn said he wasn’t too concerned about the women’s performance.
“There’s a lot of things we can do on the balance beam to make the adjustments, to make sure the squad hits,” Corn said.
Three squad members, Mika Houston, Kristen Fargo and Kristen Bloom, are all suffering from ankle injuries, which Corn said may have affected Friday’s performance. Houston was the only athlete of the three injured to compete in the meet against the Thunderbirds.
The highlight in the beam event was freshman Kira Nulph, who turned in a 9.85 performance. The two teammates who competed before her fell off the equipment, but Nulph said that didn’t distract her.
“I didn’t pay attention to the people in front of me,” Nulph said. “I was concentrating on my own routine.”
Corn said the fall Kim Scharman took on the beam was uncharacteristic. Scharman has recorded a career-high 9.700 twice this year on the balance beam.
“[The fall] won’t happen again,” Corn said.
Sophomore Tina Ellis also had a solid performance on the beam, posting a 9.8. She said she’s not certain what happened on the beam Friday night to cause three of the six gymnasts to fall. But Ellis is keeping an optimistic attitude about the event.
“We’ll get it,” Ellis said. “We’re working on it. We want it so bad.”
Corn is also looking to improve and is remaining positive about the team’s progress.
“We throw a lot of difficulty on the balance beam, and we have to let our beam team mature and grow with the competition,” he said. “No one went up on the balance beam with great trepidation. Everyone just tried to do a business-like performance. So I’ve seen progress there. That 47.750 will improve.”