Gymnasts finish .8 points behind first
Despite the home-court advantage the Utah State women’s gymnastics squad finished fourth Saturday afternoon in the Spectrum at the WAC Gymnastics Championship.
The Aggies were only eight-tenths of point behind first-place Sacramento State. But the Ags didn’t have the best performance and walked away several places behind Sac State.
“I honestly thought that we had an opportunity of winning this,” Utah State Head Coach Ray Corn said.
Boise State finished in second and Southern Utah University finished in third, while San Jose came in at fifth and Cal State Fullerton rounded up the meet in sixth place.
Corn said this performance was a repeat of every other meet this year, where the team would either make a mistake in every event or have a major disappointment in one or two of them. However, despite the mistakes and disappointments, Corn said the team did do well on the vault and floor.
The Aggies started the night off on the beam where they ended up with a 48.025. Meagan Lewis was the lead scorer for USU at 9.725. Megan Tschida also helped the team out with a 9.650 and a solid routine.
“It was a tough event to get started on,” Jessica Parenti said. “We came out of the locker room a bit cold.”
Parenti performed in the all-around for the Aggies, finishing second overall. She took first in the uneven bars with a season-best score of 9.875.
Utah State sat out for the second round, but came in during the third round for their second event on the floor. The floor was the team’s worst event as they had to count falls. Once again, delivering a solid performance and coming in at a six-way tie for fourth place was Tschida. She scored a 9.75 for the team.
Parenti pushed the level on floor and got a 9.725 and was in a three-way tie for tenth place overall.
After floor, the Aggies then moved on to the vault, where they got their best event score and the second-best team score.
Parenti once again kicked things up a notch and not only got the team’s best vault score of 9.85, but was in a six-way tie for fourth place overall.
Following the vault, the team once again had to sit out a round, but they came back for their final event on the uneven parallel bars. Parenti came out strong, landing her the top bars score.
“We almost had it,” Parenti said of the Aggies’ performance. “It was close.”
It was close as the top four teams, USU included, were only .850 and fewer points apart. Sacramento State, who came in first place, got a 193.950 and the Aggies ended the meet and the season with a 193.100.
-vramirez@cc.usu.edu
Utah State’s Megan Tschida performs her floor routine at the WAC gymnastics championship Saturday afternoon in the Spectrum.
Utah State’s Jessica Parenti performs on the balance beam during the WAC gymnastics championships Saturday in the Spectrum. Parenti finished tied for second in the all-around.
Utah State’s Brittany Price competes on the balance beam Saturday afternoon in the Spectrum during the WAC gymnastics championship. The Aggies finished fourth overall.