Gymnasts finish 2nd in Texas

Utah State’s Jessica Parenti once again led the Aggies by finishing first in the all-around in USU’s second-place finish Sunday in Texas.

“That’s the type of performance I was expecting in our first outing,” Utah State Head Coach Ray Corn said. “But we just couldn’t get it.”

The Aggies finished second behind LSU with a score of 192.875. Despite falling behind early in the match, Corn said USU was able to do really well on the uneven bars and finish ahead of Texas Woman’s and Centenary.

“Where we dug ourselves into a hole is opening up on beam, which is a very hard position to open up on,” Corn said. “I’m very proud of the girls for coming back – starting in third place – and we really didn’t pull out of third place until the last and final performance on the uneven bars in our final rotation.”

Corn added that he felt good about the performance at Texas, especially how the Aggies did on the uneven bars.

After finishing in fourth place last week in California, Corn said he would like to see the same type of improvement each week from the USU gymnasts. The Aggies next face BYU Friday night at home and Corn said the meet has the potential to be a very good one.

“If we can make the very same type of improvement this week as we did last week in preparation for coming home to BYU, I think we’re going to have a fun outing,” he said. “This is going to be a tough meet against BYU.”

Parenti and Omann finished first and second in the all-around. Parenti was also named the USU athlete of the week, as well as the WAC gymnast of the week, something Corn said he was happy about.

The Aggies’ first home meet will be Friday night hosting BYU. The meet begins at 6:35 p.m. in the Spectrum.

-aedmunds@cc.usu.edu