Aggie gymnasts going to second-straight regional meet
After placing fourth at the Mountain Rim Gymnastics Conference on Saturday, Utah State received its second-straight NCAA regional meet invite.
“I feel pretty good,” said Aggie head coach Nadalie Walsh after the meet was announced. “We’ve already seen three of the teams. They are in our conference, so I think our girls will be really comfortable.”
The Aggies’ regional meet will be held at University of California Berkley and competition begins on April 4. Joining USU from the MRGC will be Boise State and BYU. Another familiar opponent, the University of Utah is the No. 3 overall seed and the top seed in Utah State’s region. Overall USU is the five seed in the region.
Also competing in the region is No. 10 Georgia, and host team Cal along with a field of individual gymnasts from San Jose State, UC Davis, Alaska-Anchorage and Sacramento State. The top two teams and top individual finishers will advance to the NCAA gymnastics national championships that starts on April 18 in Ft. Worth, Texas.
“I think it will be good for the team,” Walsh said. “They aren’t going to be looking around, wondering what other teams look like. Now it doesn’t matter what they do, it matters what we do.”
The team has competed against Boise State three times and BYU four times. Susie Miller, a senior for Utah State who placed 17th at regionals last year in the floor exercise, said she believes that will be an advantage for USU.
It’s good to know your competition,” Miller said. “It’s good to know the people that will be there, and It’s good to know how they work. I think we already know how to prepare for it. Since (BYU and BSU) are in our conference, it gives us even more drive to beat them.”
Miller is happy about going to California instead of one of the six other regions. She is originally from Fair Oaks, California, about an hour and a half from the UC Berkley campus.
“I’m really excited to go back home and have probably my last meet be in California,” Miller said. “It’s fun to go back and see all my friends. I get to see everyone and be back in my home town. It will be fun.”
Utah State also learned that the rotation for the meet will be Olympic order. The team will compete first on vault, then bars, beam and lastly, floor. Olympic order is the same order the Aggies competed in during home meets this season.
“It’s really nice to have it,” Walsh said. “I feel comfortable with my team starting on any event. Other teams that have to start on beam or bars might get nervous. I think this is a perfect rotation for us. I think the girls are going to be super pumped.”
Sarah Landes is senior stand-out all-around gymnast for Utah State. She placed ninth last year at regionals.
“We all know what to expect this year,” Landes said. “Last year was the first year a lot of the girls had been in a regional meet. This year everyone knows what to expect. We’re all going to be ready to go. I think we’ll all be really prepared this year.”
Walsh also believes that going to two-straight regionals will be a help for the team that was inexperienced going into regionals last season.
“It was expected this year,” Walsh said. “Last year it was a bit of a cherry on the top of a good season. When they walk into that arena, they aren’t going to be so nervous. They’re going to feel like they are meant to be there. Going two years in a row is pretty exciting.”
Walsh said that the Utes are the powerhouse of the region and that Georgia has looked really good, but every team has had its ups and downs.
“It will be interesting to see how all the teams are battling for that second spot,” Walsh said. “I just want my team to go in, have fun, function like a family and not worry about anything else. It would be amazing to be in the top two. Realistically, to finish in the top four is a very achievable goal. That’s what were setting out to do and let everyone else figure out where that places us.”
— kalen.s.taylor@gmail.com
Twitter: @kalen_taylor