Aggie gymnasts open season on right track
It was easy to see that the Utah State University women’s gymnastic team was ready to start its season on Friday against Cal State Fullerton.
Both first-year members of the newly formed Western Gymnastics Conference, the Aggies came from behind to defeat the Titians 192.750-191.375 in front of 937 fans in the Spectrum.
The two teams previously met in the Big West Championships last March. Despite being outscored on the beam by the Titans, the Aggies defeated CSF 195.675-194.0850 and advanced to the first round of the NCAA Regionals in Salt Lake City.
“The key factor of this meet was preparedness,” said USU Head Coach Ray Corn – celebrating his 25th year at the helm of Aggie gymnastics.
Only four days off for Christmas was the main part of preparedness, Corn said, and it looks to be setting the team on a better trail than last season.
USU opened the season on the road at Boise State last year and posted a disappointing 188.800, a score that is not out of the minds of some Aggies.
“One of the young ladies said that this was a lot better than Boise last year,” Corn said. “‘I said, ‘yes it is.’ Tonight was a very good start.”
Aggie Mika Love Houston said, “It’s a big deal that we get a good start.”
Houston herself got off to an impressive start winning the all-around competition with a 38.350. The sophomore had only competed in the all-around competition twice in her career prior to Friday. Her career best [38.550] came against San Jose State last season.
After surviving a car accident before the start of the Fall 2001 Semester in which her father was killed, Houston underwent two surgeries and worked herself back to a healthy condition.
“My first surgery was hard to come back from but if you want it bad enough, you can do anything,” Houston said. “It [the second surgery] was a lot easier than I thought. It healed faster. I’ve just been doing extra work and taking care of it.”
The Aggies also got a boost from junior all-arounder Nicole Kilpatrick who finished the evening with a 38.800.
Almost nailing an Arabian double, an E element, on her first doubling pass on the floor exercise, Kilpatrick lost a few tenths of a point for landing with her knees bent according to the new scoring guidelines.
Another big performance on the floor came from senior Jessenia Abrego who earned a meet-high 9.825 on the event.
“We just went out on floor and did the best we can,” Abrego said. “We thought it [floor] was going to be one of our weakest [events], but obviously not, because we finished strong.”
Trailing the Titans .575 [144.525-143.950] after three events, the Aggies constantly hit their routines on the floor as they watched the only thing UCF hit was the floor off the balance beam as four Titans tumbled to the ground.
The Aggies started the evening off with a 47.825 on the vault led by Kilpatrick [9.675] followed by a 48.525 on the bars led by Abrego [9.775].
Despite three falls of their own on beam [Houston, Kilpatrick and freshman Katie Rutherford], solid performances by juniors Allison Rosenthal [9.750] and Kristen Bloom [9.700] carried USU to a 47.600.
Titan Kelly Mathiasen, 2001 Big West Conference all-around champion, finished with a 37.375 mark in the all-around competition.
Mathiasen fell on both the bars and the beam.