Reginal Qualifying Score is now a factor for gymnastics team
Though the Utah State gymnastics team held a perfect 3-0 home record until their recent loss against San Jose State University Monday night, their minds are focused on the present – the second half of the season.
“The first half of the season is over,” said head coach Ray Corn. “The second half of the season now begins. It’s the teams that are the healthiest and those that are able to go out there and replace score [that will succeed]. That is what we need to do in order for us to even think we have an opportunity to get to the regional meet.”
The Aggies have no choice but to replace scores when considering the Regional Qualifying Score (RQS) that determines which teams will participate in the regional meets and where they will compete.
“It’s just a systematic way of trying to finding the best seven teams of getting into the regional meet,” Corn said.
The top six scores will be considered from each team – the three best away scores and the three best home scores. The highest of the six scores is dropped, and the remaining five are averaged. The higher the RQS, the better.
If today was the end of the season instead of the start of the second half, the Aggies would be forced to count scores including 193.850 and 193.900. According to Corn, this is not good enough to help the team land a spot at the regional meet.
“We need to replace every one of those scores (from the first half of the season) by at least a full point,” Corn said.
In the long run the Aggies may be left out of the regional meet because of the calculated RQS, but Corn says it is the only fair way to determine who moves on.
“Qualifying in gymnastics is not determined by win/losses,” Corn said. “It is solely based on what we score. I don’t think there is any other way of [determining who moves onto the regional meet].”