Aggie gymnastics wins quad meet at home

Utah State Gymnastics swept the competition in the home quad meet against Southern Utah, Sacramento State and the University of Alaska, winning three of the four events. They earned a team score of 195.875, reaching four career-high and two more season-high scores.

“I’m incredibly proud of our team,” said head coach Kristin White. “They had a great competition, and we came out with a win.”

The team started out strong on vault with a score of 48.725. Junior Nyla Morabito won the vault title with a career-high-tying score of 9.850.

USU secured an early lead over SUU, CSUS and UA with vault scores of 48.700, 48.075 and 46.150, respectively.

The team then demonstrated a top bars performance, reaching a season-high score of 49.150 and tying with SUU for the top event score of the competition.

“We had a season high over there today, and we were able to stick some of those dismounts, which was a really big goal for our team,” White said. “So, really proud of bars.”

Junior Sydney Jelen started the rotation with a 9.850, tying her career-high score, and sophomore Olivia Orengo scored 9.850 to tie her season-high score. Sophomore Lundyn VanderToolen followed with another 9.850. Jelen, Orengo and VanderToolen all tied for No. 2 in the event.

Senior Avery Bibbey also tied her season-high score with a 9.800.

The team’s performance pushed them ahead to a running score of 95.500 halfway through the competition.

The Aggies scored 48.825 on beam, outscoring SSU, CSUS and UA with scores of 48.625, 47.100 and 47.550, respectively.

Jelen tied for first in the event, also tying her career-high score with a 9.875.

Utah State concluded the competition with a strong performance on floor, tying its third-highest score of the season with a 49.175. Mara Gruber stole posted a career-high 9.900 in the anchor spot, winning the event for the Aggies.

“I just trusted myself, trusted my coaches, trusted my teammates, and the outcome was just there,” Gruber said.

The team plans on continuing to refine their skills for future competitions, taking it one meet at a time and focusing on doing their best and having fun.

“Now it’s just about going out there and doing what we’ve been practicing for,” Gruber said.

The Aggies are now 11-3 and hope to see more victories as they continue with strength and hard work through the rest of their season.

Utah State’s next competition will be a dual meet in California with San Jose State on Sunday, Feb. 15, at 3 p.m. MST.