Ag gymnastics ranked No. 16
While most students were away on Spring Break, the No. 16 Utah State gymnastics team was busy competing. Going up against Southern Utah March 14, the Aggies won with total team score of 195.825-194.700.
Five days later they lost in a tri-meet against Kentucky and Dallas with their first score under 195.000 in six meets.
This was USU’s second meet against Southern Utah, the first ended in defeat. This time around the team went all out with its second highest score since scoring a 195.9 against Texas Woman’s on March 1.
Jessica Parenti won her forth straight all-around with a 39.275. Liesel Kohler topped the beam event with a 9.900 while freshman Megan Tschida won the floor with a 9.850.
Unfortunately for the Ags, things didn’t go quite as well against Kentucky and Denver. USU already beat Denver once this season.
“We didn’t look as sharp as we have here at home,” Utah State Head Coach Ray Corn said of the meet. “We did not cleanly execute vault and were stumbling and walking all over the place.”
USU has been ranked No. 16 nationally for two weeks and the loss had no affect on the team’s ranking.
Co-captain Alex Martin tied her season high and tied for forth place on the floor with a 9.850. Parenti was the only Aggie to crack the top three on an event. She tied for third on the bars with a 9.775.
The team counted no falls and had to shuffle the line-up, but still only lost to Denver by eight-tenths of a point, putting them in third place.
The team will head to the Western Gymnastics Conference Championships in Fullerton, Calif., Friday.
They will be competing against host Cal State Fullerton, Boise State – a team USU has beaten twice – and Southern Utah.
-vramirez@cc.usu.edu
USU´s Jessica Parenti competes on the uneven bars against Southern Utah in the Spectrum. The Ags are currently ranked No. 16. (Photo by Ryan Talbot)