Gymnasts win again
After a disappointing loss to Texas Woman’s last week, the USU gymnastics team tumbled into a meet against California and won 195.325-192.350.
“The ladies did a great job dusting off what took place at Texas Woman’s and came roaring back,” Utah State Head Coach Ray Corn said about the meet.
The teams’ goal of hitting 24 out of 24 routines came crashing down as they experienced falls on the bars and the beam.
However, the USU falls were nothing compared to California who experienced fall after fall on the balance beam.
California had a total of three falls, all simultaneously, with two of the three girls falling twice in the routine. California is suffering the same misfortunes that Utah State had last season – illness and injuries.
Because of the misfortune, California only had seven competitors, total. As a result, they had only five competitors on every event except the beam.
The team began the night on the vault, where Jessica Parenti not only scored a career high of 9.95, but also tied for the best school vault record.
Parenti was helped on the vault by Rachael Mandy who had a career high 9.85 and Katie Omann at 9.800.
The team score of 49.050 was also the seventh-best vault score at USU. Katie Rutherford also got a career high of 9.75.
“We vaulted extremely well,” said Corn. “It is probably the best performance of the year without a doubt.”
Uneven bars came next for the team. The Aggies were led by freshmen Megan Tschida and Omann who tied for second place in the event with a score of 9.800.
The score was a career high for Tschida. At the end of the second rotation, USU was leading the competition 97.750- 97.175.
On the beam, the team suffered two straight falls from Tschida and Alex Martin but only had to count one of the two. Corn said that that they just lost concentration.
Both Parenti and Kohler said it was nerve-wracking to compete after two falls. Parenti said they were flukes.
Utah State still swept all three places in the event. In first place came Liesel Kohler with a score of 9.820.
Tied for second were Ashley Barr, a season high, and Parenti at 9.825. Rutherford also got a season high of 9.775.
The final rotation for the Aggies was the floor event. Parenti led the way once again with a score of 9.900.
“It wasn’t as good as my other ones this season,” she said.
Parenti won the event and also took the lead in the all-around. She was named the Coca-Cola Outstanding Gymnast.
In second place was Kohler with a score that got booed by the fans, a 9.875. The routine seemed like it was solid and was nearly flawless.
“To me it felt like a ’10’ set,” she said. “It felt like the best I’ve done all year. It felt solid, but you can’t always predict what is going to happen.”
In third place came Tschida with a score of 9.850. Tschida was named the USU Athlete of the Week for this week.
USU will take on BYU on Thursday in Provo. This will be a rematch to an earlier upset by the Cougars.
“I am looking forward to the trip down to Provo,” Corn said. “It’s going to be a very exciting event.”
-vramirez@cc.usu.edu
Aggie Liesel Kohler competes on the balance beam during Monday´s meet against California in the Spectrum. Kohler won the event with a score of 9.85. (Photo by Ryan Talbot)