Gymnastics squad places third in meet against BYU, Arizona
Despite being ahead after the first two events Friday, the Aggies couldn’t hold on to their lead and fell to both Brigham Young University Cougars and the University of Arizona Wildcats in their first home tri-meet since 2008.
The Cougars finished first at 193.075, with the Wildcats following at 192.725, and the Aggies finishing at 192.000.
In her second week of all-around competition, freshman Paige Jones beat last week’s score by a little more than half a point.
“We definitely had some pretty solid things tonight,” Jones said. “We just need to get our beam scores up and we’ll be golden.”
The beam rotation has been a struggle for the Aggies in both meets so far this season. After a few stumbles and falls on the beam, they scored more than a point behind the other teams.
Senior Jackie Dillon said she felt her beam score of 9.325 was a little lower than it should have been. She said she felt like it was a pretty clean routine.
“I felt a little robbed,” she said. “But I talked to the judges afterwards and things kind of made sense, but they kind of killed me on it.”
Overall, head coach Jeff Richards said he was pleased with the girls’ performances.
“On three events, we rocked it,” he said. “I just don’t think tonight really showed where we are.”
Richards said he planned on having the team practice beam routines a lot over the weekend.
“We practice and they focus and they stay with it,” he said, “but then they come in here and run it and something happens.”
While USU was struggling on the beam, BYU’s vault scores pushed them into the lead.
Even with the loss, it was a good meet for many Aggies.
Freshmen Jones, Rachel Vaske and Cammi Muhr all improved their scores on the vault this week.
Muhr earned the beam title with a score of 9.8.
Junior Nicole Simoneau tied for first in the uneven parallel bars portion of the meet with a 9.85.
Dillon tied her career high in all-around competition with a score of 38.500.
“We came in a lot stronger this week,” she said. “We were a lot more prepared than we were for last week’s meet.”
Dillon said she loves competing in all-around because it keeps pushing her.
“I’m always wanting to beat my own scores,” she said.
The Aggies will be on the road for the next month, traveling first to San Jose State for a meet on Jan. 21.
Richards said they are going to work hard and really practice beam between now and then.
“If that’s all we work on in the gym, then so be it,” he said. “All in all, I think we competed way better today than we did last week. We’re on the right track.”
“We’re just doing what we do,” Jones said. “We just need to get it all to come together.”
– megan.allen@aggiemail.usu.edu