USU finishes fourth in Best of Utah gymnastics meet
WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah — The clock hit zero on the four minute warm up countdown and USU gymnast Alivia Ostendorf kicked off the tournament and mounted the beam, flipping and leaping across it before ending with a personal score of 9.4 out of 10 possible points.
Two and a half hours later, the USU women’s gymnastics team took fourth place at the Rio Tinto Best of Utah Gymnastics Meet. With a score of 193.6, the team trailed closely behind Southern Utah University (194) with BYU (195.775) in second and University of Utah (197.725) taking first place.
On Monday, Jan. 15, the four schools competed at the Maverik Center in West Valley City. Rotating between the beam, floor routines, vault and bars, the teams displayed sheer athleticism with every stunt.
The Aggies are ranked 51st in their division and were disappointed with their performance overall. Head coach Kristine White, said the next step is to get back to practice and keep working.
“I’m a little bit disappointed in our performance today. We’ve really been working hard in the gym and the goal was to come out and just do our normal gymnastics and compete and unfortunately we fell a little short today, especially on the first few rotations but we’re gonna get back into the gym and work hard and fix those mistakes,” White said.
Team star and senior Brianna Brooks was named USU’s MVP by the judges for her overall high scores and near perfect performances. She ended with the team’s highest personal score in beam, vault and bars.
Personal scores are judged based on difficulty and execution and are added at the end of a meet for the team’s overall ranking.
USU gymnast Isabelle Vater said her goal was to remain positive, no matter the outcome.
“We picked a word before the meet that we wanted to say and mine was positivity,” Vater said. “So I feel like throughout the meet I definitely kept a positive mindset. It didn’t go as planned but I still had a lot of fun. This is my first Best of Utah. So I had fun.”
White is in her second year as head coach for the team and said her coaching style depends on what each athlete needs.
“I have a very unique coaching style,” said White. “You know, I can be that loving, you know, supportive person that they need, but I can also be tough and so what’s unique about it is that each individual athlete needs something different from me. So I really strive to give the athlete you know, the type of coaching that they strive under.”
The team opened the 2024 season with a fourth place finish at the North Carolina Quad Meet and the University of North Carolina on Jan. 5. Coming up next, the team will prepare for their meet on Friday at 7 p.m. in the American First Event Center in Cedar City against Arizona State University.