Ag gymnasts place last in regional meet
With another successful gymnastics season, the USU gymnastics team qualified to compete in the NCAA North Central Regional Championship yet again. The girls went up against some tough competition but were still able to keep their composure after placing last out of six teams.
“We stayed on the equipment, but at this level staying on is not enough,” Head Coach Ray Corn said. “It is the little things that you don’t get done that end up hurting you.”
Out of the 30 years Corn has been at USU, the gymnastics team has competed at region 26 times.
The regional championship, which took place Saturday at the Magness Arena in Denver, took the top two teams and the top two all-around competitors from each region to compete for the title.
Two-time defending national champions, the Georgia Gym Dogs, walked away in first place, scoring an impressive 197.275. Georgia, the No. 2 ranked team in the nation, left with their 19th regional victory.
Coming in second place with a huge drop to 195.825 was No. 14 Denver followed by No. 11 Penn State (195.625), No. 23 BYU (193.300), No. 25 Minnesota (192.9) and lastly, the Aggies, with a score of 192.525.
Senior Meagan Lewis led the team with an overall score of 38.600 with freshman Heather Heinrich close behind at 38.450.
USU did well on the vault (48.475), the bars (48.075) and the floor (48.250), but they could not keep it together on the beam. After two falls, they finished that event with a score of 47.725.
In the all-around, Lewis placed ninth, Heinrich placed 10th, sophomore Nicki Felley was 12th, and senior Jessica Parenti-Otte finished 15th.
-bfairman@cc.usu.edu