Gymnastics stumbles at No. 4 Utah
Despite losing 198.05-195.475, the Utah State Gymnastics team managed to get their third best score of the season and the second best road score of the season.
USU faced its toughest competition Friday night as they took on the No. 4 team in the nation, the University of Utah at the RC Willey Invitational.
“We grew up a little bit tonight,” said Aggie Head Coach Ray Corn about the meet. “I personally felt we handled it.”
Utah State fought hard but just could not pull it off against Utah. For the U, the night was filled with an array of personal bests being set, beating home records and two perfect scores, set by Veronique Leclerc and Melissa Vituj.
Although the Aggies fell short Friday, they didn’t let a loss get them down.
“I knew it would be an experience,” said all-arounder Gretchen Goerlitz about competing at the University of Utah. “It’s the coolest thing ever.”
The Aggies started their night off on the bars. This time there were no falls on the bars for Utah State. Co-captain Katie Rutherford helped the team with her 9.800, also tying teammate, all-arounder Alex Martin.
Although no Aggies fell on the bars Friday, Corn wasn’t completely happy with his team’s performance he said.
“We had a minor seizure on the bars,” Corn said. “We’re going to have to change the routines this week in order to not make the same mistakes over and over.”
“I don’t know what happened on the bars,” Martin said. “We had an awesome warm-up.”
The team then moved on to the vault. Goerlitz led the way setting a new personal career high of 9.850. Co-captain Rachel Ropelato had a great land and also helped out with her 9.800. Rachael Mandy received a 9.75 and Jessica Kettle tied her season high of 9.675.
Corn said, “We vaulted well.”
Utah State kept going with their third event, the floor. Once again Goerlitz led the way tying her previous career high of 9.925. Liesel Kohler and Rachel Barr also contributed to the team with their performances and scores.
Goerlitz said that it was hard to play to the crowd because she knew that they were watching their girls.
The team’s last event was the beam. The overall team score of 49.150 was the season’s highest beam score and the sixth best of all-time.
Kohler led the way with her 9.875 and both Stacy Stewart and Martin contributed with their 9.850 each. The team also had one fall on the beam by Goerlitz on the mount.
“It’s a sketchy mount,” she said. “It’s bound to happen once a year.”
Friday’s meet was the Aggies’ last road meet of the regular season and they will meet again in the Spectrum Friday, March 6 against California for the second time this season.
-vramirez@cc.usu.edu