Night of career highs helps Aggie Gymnastics defeat two top 20 opponents
Accolade bashing night helps Aggies defeat two top 20 opponents.
TUSCON — No. 22 Utah State Gymnastics traveled to the University of Arizona on Saturday night to compete in a quad meet with No. 20 Arizona, No.13 Stanford and No. 4 Oklahoma. The Aggies were slated to have a home meet against Boise State, but due to COVID at Boise State, it was postponed.
The Aggies finished second in the meet, scoring 196.350, defeating Arizona (193.775) and Stanford (195.725), while falling to Oklahoma (197.900).
“I hope this was a big confidence builder and motivator, because we’ve got so much more in the tank. Once again, I am excited to get back in the gym with this team and get after it.” head coach Amy Smith said.
Utah State started the meet on the floor, which was the Aggies most electric rotation last week against Air Force where freshman Brie Clark posted a team-high 9.950 which moved her to No. 4 in the nation for a floor routine. Clark anchored the floor routine with a 9.925. The Aggies returned Rebecca Wells, the floor specialist for Utah State, from COVID protocols last week. She scored a 9.825. The top five scores for Utah State were above 9.650. The Aggies were in third place after the first rotation with a 48.900 team score.
Trinity Brown opened up the vault rotation for the Aggies, tying a career-high 9.825. Following Brown’s routine, Brianna Brooks got a season-high of 9.800 on the vault. Aggies had another group scoring of five scores above 9.700. A total of 48.900 in the vault, accomplishing a score of 97.800 through two rotations.
“Vault did a good job,” Smith said. “We finally settled in on our bars and got after our landings, which was great to see.”
The Aggies moved to the bars for the third rotation, with Jessica Gutierrez tying her career-high with a 9.825, the third accolade accomplished by an Aggie at the meet. Eve Jackson posted a 9.800, in the last meet she had a career-high 9.900. A 49.050 for the Aggies in the bar rotation put them at 146.850 in third place heading into the last rotation, just .75 behind second-place Stanford.
Utah State dominated on the beam rotation, providing three personal records, and four 9.900+ scores. Wells posted 9.900 in the beam rotation — her career-high. Freshman Kielyn McCright posted a 9.925 career-high, and Brianna Brooks had a career-high 9.900. The Aggies finished the Beam rotation with a score of 49.500, tied for the second-highest routine score at the meet, and second all-time in school history.
Utah State travels to Provo to take on No. 21 BYU on Jan. 28, then returns home Feb. 4 to battle Ball State.