Aggie gymnasts host home finale
Over Spring Break, Aggie gymnasts turned the tables to finally hit the momentum of “hitting their stride,” USU gymnastics coach Ray Corn said
With only two more chances to move up the team’s ranking to qualify for regionals, Friday’s home meet against the Southern Utah University Thunderbirds will make this the most important meet of the year, Corn said.
“We’ve got two meets to try and move up into the Top 36, which we mathematically can still do,” Corn said. “It’s going to take our finest moment to get us there.”
It is the final home meet of 2008 for USU.
“With our last meet with an in-state rival, I think it’s going to add a lot of flavor in many different directions to this entire competition,” Corn said. “We need to go in there with an attitude that with anything less than performing our very best is going to be unacceptable.”
Friday is “Senior Night” as the Aggies will honor their four seniors: Megan Tschida, Katie Omann, Kelly Patterson and Ana Rickard-Whitfield.
Tschida said she looks forward to the competition, although it will also be emotional.
“I’m excited to go out there as a senior,” Tschida said. “The meet will be fun but at the same time emotional. I’m going to work as hard as I can and give all that I have.”
As four seniors conclude their collegiate gymnastics career, the experience of being a collegiate gymnast can never be repeated, Corn said.
“(These seniors) have been work horses,” Corn said. “I tell these girls to cherish it and remember these times because these can never be re-lived again.”
With the “wind behind their backs,” the team finally has their pace set, Tschida said.
“We really had to learn how to become a team and we had to learn how to fight,” she said. “I have 100-percent confidence that we are going to do our best.”
Over the break, Aggie gymnasts achieved their highest season score-a 194.450 best against San Jose State.
Since recording three season bests recorded in the SJSU meet, the team has been improving in every outing, Corn said.
“Since San Jose, we’ve been hitting our stride,” he explained. “We’ve been able to stand up against a lot of teams.”
The team’s goal is to surpass the 195 mark and have just as good of a meet as they had at San Jose, Corn said.
“We’ll probably be having to repeat that score at conference to have that opportunity of qualifying our team,” Corn said. “It’s not a ‘do or die’ situation but we just have to have our finest moment.”
Corn has had the Aggies qualify for regionals 26 times.
“Only four times we haven’t made it, and these girls do not want to be the fifth one,” Corn said.
Utah State is 5-13 overall and 2-5 in the Western Athletic Conference. SUU is 9-5-1 overall and 5-2 in the WAC.
“It’s not whether you win or lose in gymnastics, it’s what you score,” Corn said. “But tomorrow night, we want to score and we want to win. This team needs to learn how to win and polish off another team like we did against San Jose.”
-candice.sandness@aggiemail.usu.edu