Nearly a perfect meet
Second best isn’t always a bad thing.
It definitely wasn’t for the No. 24 Utah State gymnastics team Friday in the Spectrum.
Posting its second-best all-time team scores on vault and bars, USU cruised by North Carolina State, 196.675-195.775, on its way to its best ever home score and second-best overall score.
“It’s as close as we’ve come to a perfect meet,” said USU Head Coach Ray Corn. “I’m excited, that’s all I can say.”
Leading the way for the Aggies was senior Nicole Kilpatrick, who, competing in her final home meet as an Aggie, posted the second best ever USU all-around score with a 39.525. She missed Christy Denson’s top score by 0.025.
“I really just wanted to go out knowing I had competed the best I could,” Kilpatrick said.
The Aggies (9-9) jumped out to a strong start, scoring 49.175 on the vault to break 49.000 for the first time this season. Kilpatrick tied the school record and set a career high with a 9.950, which won the event.
But NC State (15-5) led after the first rotation, putting up a 49.200 on bars. In the second rotation though, USU would take the lead and not look back.
On the bars, the Aggies hit all of their routines, with the lowest score being a 9.850, for an overall score of 49.325. The Wolfpack scored a 48.650 on vault.
Moving onto the balance beam, the Aggies appeared to start slowly, with Ashley Barr falling in the first routine, but she was given a redo. Corn said a ball bounced out of the crowd and an usher walked over to pick it up, interrupting Barr as she started her routine. The judges saw the incident and granted the redo.
USU went on to post a 48.825. Beam was the only event the Wolfpack won, as they scored a 49.150.
Finishing on floor, Utah State continued to shine. Kilpatrick led the way with a 9.925 and Liesel Kohler (9.900) and Rachel Ropelato (9.800) both put up career highs as USU scored a 49.350.
Ropelato wasn’t originally scheduled to compete on the floor, but senior Allison Rosenthal sat out due to a tender ankle.
“[Rosenthal] always does really good on floor, and so I had some big shoes to fill, so I just went out and did my best,” Ropelato said. “she always gets above a 9.8, so I knew I had to fill in for her.”
The Aggies also swept the top three all-around spots, with Kilpatrick winning it and freshmen Jessica Parenti (39.300) and Meagan Nelson (39.225) finishing second and third.
For Nelson it was her 10th time this season scoring above 39.000 in the all-around, setting a school record for the most times eclipsing that mark in a season.
After the meet, the Aggies honored their three senior gymnasts and senior undergraduate assistant Tina Ellis in a tearful ceremony.
Kimberly Scharman, Rosenthal and Kilpatrick are in their last season at Utah State, although Scharman has not competed this season due to a back injury.
“The problem with me tonight is that we’re going to graduate some very, very outstanding student athletes in our seniors and I’m just very thankful that, first of all, they had one of their brightest performances,” Corn said.
Although Utah State turned in its best score of the season, it doesn’t do much to help the team’s standing. Teams are invited to the NCAA Regional competition based on their regional qualifying score (RQS).
The RQS is figured by taking a team’s top six scores, of which three must be from away meets, throwing out the highest score, and averaging the remaining five scores. The Aggies replaced a 195.850 with their latest score.
Going into Friday’s meet, Utah State had slowly been improving its RQS, replacing scores with strong performances at BYU on March 7 and in the Spectrum on March 10.
In a four-team meet at BYU, the Aggies had to count a couple of falls and struggled on beam as they finished fourth at 195.225, but replaced a score of 192.875.
“We improved our RQS quite a bit,” Corn said. “You can’t start off with a field like this and have to count a fall and an almost blown bar routine. We spotted the field basically far too much.”
Parenti said, “It really was a big team score. We get to throw out our 192.875, so we bump our RQS a little bit.”
BYU gymnasts Kari Lord (beam) and Brogan Jacobsen (floor) both scored 10s in their event, the first 10s in those events ever for the Cougars.
Southern Utah (195.875) won the meet, while BYU (195.425) finished second and Central Michigan (195.250) was third.
The Aggies were able to rebound at home three days later though, defeating both SUU (195.375) and Central Michigan (195.075). Behind another stellar floor performance (49.125), the Aggies posted a 195.850 team score.
“Again we had a floor performance that was absolutely unbelievable,” Corn said. “No, it wasn’t record-setting, and yet by the same token it was enough to capture a win.”
The Aggies are currently ranked No. 18 nationally on the floor.
–slbk5@cc.usu.edu