Gymnasts take third
Utah State gymnastics bested its season total team score, coming in third in its first quad meet Saturday, 192.275.
The sixth-ranked team in the nation, University of Oklahoma, cemented the first place win as the University of Denver trailed behind with a 195.700 and the Air Force Academy placed last with a 186.375.
“I was very pleased with the performance, and the team competed with grit and stood up to the competition,” USU head coach Ray Corn said. “It was not as if we were without mistakes, but we looked professional the way we conducted ourselves.”
Jitters are disappearing, and confident play is finally taking the reins this season.
“I am positive that this has been an uplifting competition for Utah State gymnastics,” Corn said. “It was great to go up against two such highly ranked teams.”
Corn said the team stood up to the competition despite a full arena.
“Having the meet sold out didn’t rattle the team. They loved it,” Corn said.
USU recorded a season-high score on bars, 48.175.
Freshman Nicole Simoneau tied for second on the uneven parallel bars with a 9.850, as she has kept a 9.800-range score on this event every meet so far this season.
“Starting out on bars and not having to count a major mistake really set the pace for us,” Corn said.
The next event was the balance beam, where USU suffered three falls but only had to count two, marking a 46.850.
Sophomore Heather Heinrich led the team on the beam, marking a 9.675, followed by freshman Lyndsie Boone with a 9.525, the first time she has competed on the beam this season.
DU nabbed second thanks to consecutive sixth place finishes on the beam, catapulting their event win to a 48.925.
“We are still struggling on balance beam and staying on, but I really believe this team will fix that,” Corn said.
Heinrich placed fifth on the vault, scoring a 9.800 to lead the Aggies.
Boone, junior Nicki Felley and Heinrich were the only three Aggies to accomplish a fall-free meet.
Boone, who competed for the first time in the all-around this season, came in fifth out of 10 competitors in the all-around and tallied a 38.475, while Felley came in behind with a sixth place finish of 38.450.
Aggie gymnasts performed equally well on the vault as they did the floor exercise, tallying a 48.625 on each.
“Our vault was superb,” Corn said.
Heinrich led the Aggies in the vault with a 9.800.
“It was an outstanding vault for (Heather),” Corn said.
The Aggies wrapped up the meet with their final event on the floor exercise, as they marked a 48.625, a score that is keeping the team “in the hunt,” trailing not so far on floor scores on the national level. USU was only three-tenths behind 14th-ranked University of Denver on the floor.
“The bottom line is when we went to floor, it didn’t bother us because in previous competitions, mistakes would carry over into the next event,” Corn said. “We looked really good on the floor exercise, and we came off the floor taking third place with no regrets.”
– candice.sandness@aggiemail.usu.edu