Wobbly Finish
Maybe it just wasn’t their night. Maybe it just wasn’t anyone’s night.
The Utah State gymnastics team found itself in fifth place in the NCAA North Central Regionals Saturday evening in the Huntsman Center with a score of 191.200. The score was the second lowest for the Aggies all season.
As expected, the University of Utah came out on top with a 194.075, the lowest Ute score all season, followed by the University of Denver with a 193.900. Both teams qualified for the NCAA Finals, which will be held April 19-21 in Athens, Georgia.
“I think we were very fortunate to get through the meet,” said University of Utah coach Greg Marsden. “We opened the door so widely for other teams very early, and nonetheless, we made it through, and I’m proud that we fought back. We just had the poorest meet that we have had the whole year.”
Although they didn’t finish first, Denver was just happy to have a ticket to Nationals.
“I’m thrilled at the outcome, and it has been a rough year for us,” said Denver coach Melissa Kutcher-Rinehart. “This is the first time in school history that we have made it to the nationals.
Iowa State University finished third with a 193.375 mark, West Virginia University fourth with a 192.400, and the Air Force Academy sixth with a 190.200.
“Wow,” was all Utah State coach Ray Corn could start with following the meet. “It was a very, very hard meet, that’s all I can say.”
It started out rough for the Aggies, forced to begin the evening on the balance beam, which plagued them all season.
“I thought we were a little tentative on beam,” Corn said. “I’m so sick of starting on beam.”
Junior Kirra Seeley’s wobbly start for the evening came without any falls. Freshman Mika Houston followed with a similar performance, earning loud cheers from the entire stadium as she swayed every direction to save herself from falling.
“You just don’t want to give anything up,” said Houston. “I just kept looking around thinking ‘pull up.’ It was a good beam routine until then, and I just didn’t want to give up.”
Sophomore Tina Ellis followed Houston, scoring the team high on the event 9.775. Then the falls came. Sophomores Kristen Fargo and Nicole Kilpatrick both fell of the beam and turned in 9.150 and 9.175, respectively. Senior Megan Woolstenhulme finished the event for the Aggies without any falls, but it wasn’t enough as USU recorded a 47.550 for the rotation.
The rest of the meet would be spent playing catch-up.
The Aggies had time to think about their upcoming events during a second-rotation bye.
The next rotation sent the Aggies to the floor, the event that has pulled the team ahead when they needed it most – at least in the Spectrum.
Saturday it was a different story. Two Aggies, senior Kristin O’Dell and freshman Kyla Mattioli, stepped out of bounds, and some routines that looked close to flawless just didn’t earn high points with the judges. Junior Jessenia Abrego led the team on the event with a 9.775.
“I don’t know what their deal was. I think [the judges] were judging everyone like that so it was fair. It was way lower than you usually get scored,” Abrego said.
The Aggies came in with a 48.150 – their highest event score for the evening – on the floor.
Another event Utah State usually fairs well on, the vault, showed a similar performance to the beam.
Sophomore Tina Ellis started the event with a fall on her dismount, earning an 8.500 and losing the potential all-around title. Ellis came in 19th in the all-around competition.
Mattioli also had trouble on her dismount with too many extra steps.
The team put up some decent vaults but were unable to earn decent scores.
Kilpatrick led the team on the event with a 9.625 toward the event score of 47.450.
Yet again, the Aggies were able to sit out for the fifth rotation. During this break, USU watched its chance at the NCAA Finals slip farther and farther away.
The Utes, at their best on the bars, turned in a meet-high 49.250 in the event.
Rumor was the judging on the bars had been hard all night, but the Aggies faired pretty well, turning in 48.050 mark.
Despite a fall from freshman Brittnee Penman, the Aggies had near flawless routines, led by Ellis with a 9.775 mark.
“Right now, seemingly it’s over,” Corn said. “I can’t thank our fans enough for their support down here, at Big West, and throughout the season. We will be back. We need to figure out how to stay healthy. This meet will make us stronger for next year.”