Aggie gymnastics suffer first meet jitters
Utah State gymnastics Head Coach Ray Corn knows its difficult to win in California.
So when the Aggies finished second at a meet against Cal State Fullerton and Illinois-Chicago, Corn wasn’t too surprised.
It wasn’t so much what CSF (2-0) did to win the meet 193.875-192.050 though, but falls that cost the Aggies the title.
Illinois-Chicago (0-2) finished with a score of 191.700.
“We had to count a lot of falls,” Corn said in a phone interview following the meet. “Falls basically equated to a low bar score.
It didn’t initially look as if the Aggies (1-1) were going to record the 48.350 that they did. Because of falls by freshman Ashley Barr and sophomore Rachel Ropelato, an 8.950 was counted toward the total score.
Freshman Jessica Parenti won the bars title, recording a 9.925 for the Aggies.
Despite the high number of falls on the bars and floor, the Aggies did not record a fall on either the vault or beam.
Corn said the beam was good but did not look as solid as he expects it to be later in the season.
Newcomer Meagan Nelson led USU with a 9.750 on the event.
Nelson, along with senior Nicole Kilpatrick, proved to be the bright spots for Utah State.
It was the first time in school history that the Aggies had two all-arounders finish with scores above 39.000 in a season-opening meet.
“I’m extremely pleased,” Corn said.
Nelson is the first freshman to record above a 39.000 in her all-around debut as an Aggie. Her 39.175 won the all-around competition.
Kilpatrick took second in the all-around (39.075) and led Utah State on the vault with a 9.800.
Corn said the meet was far from perfect for the Aggies, so they will simply go back to the gym this week and prepare to travel to Oklahoma to face the Sooners and Boise State on Sunday.
The Aggies will hold their first home meet Jan. 24 as the Boise State comes to town.
Cal State Fullerton’s Kelly Mathiasen finished the all-around in third place (38.850).
The Titans, members of the Western Gymnastics Conference with Utah State, finished fifth last season in the league with an 8-9 overall record.
Illinois-Chicago’s Atlin Mitchell (38.600) in fourth.
–juag@cc.usu.edu