PROVO, Utah – It was a career night for BYU gymnastics as the meet saw 10 individual career highs from the Cougars and a season-high 196.425 to finish second behind Denver’s 196.550 Friday night in the Smith Fieldhouse.
“It was a great meet, we finally competed like we do in practice,” BYU head coach Brad Cattermole said. “On the floor we struggled a little bit because we still had last meet's struggles on our mind. I’m sure we’ll come out of that in the next meet or two and we’ll be back to looking really good on the floor.”
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Raquel Willman Hatch won the all-around with a 39.425, while Makenzie Johnson finished second with a 39.375. Both all-around scores were career highs.
On the vault, BYU tallied a team score of 49.100, its second highest total in the event this season, to top Denver’s 49.075. The Cougars were led by Eliane Kulczyk’s 9.875, which tied her career high on the vault. They also received scores of 9.825 from Johnson and Hatch.
After the Pioneers scored a 49.300 on the uneven bars, the Cougars had their best performance in the event this year scoring a 49.325. They were led by career highs from Hatch (9.950), Johnson (9.875) and Kulczyk (9.850).
On the beam the career highs continued to come in for BYU, this time from Ashley Follett (9.800) and Summer Raymond (9.900). The Cougars combined to finish with their season-high 49.075 in the beam, but Denver had a strong finish at the beam with a 49.200 to top BYU.
KayCee Gassaway scored a 9.775 on the floor routine and Johnson finished with a 9.900 -- both career highs. Hatch scored a 9.850 to secure the top spot in the all-around. The team finished with a season-high 48.925 just behind Denver’s 48.975.
BYU stays home to host in-state rival Utah State in its next meet Friday at 7 p.m. MST in the Smith Fieldhouse.
PROVO, Utah – BYU gymnastics hosts its first meet of the 2014 season Friday at 7 p.m. MST at the Smith Fieldhouse as the Denver Pioneers come to town.
The two members of the Mountain Rim Gymnastics Championship met two weeks ago in Boise, Idaho, when Denver narrowly edged BYU 194.825-194.675. Boise State finished first in the meet with a score of 195.150.
“We kind of stumbled in the last meet, so this week we’re hoping to have a serious comeback this week,” BYU head coach Brad Cattermole said.
BYU scored a season-low 192.900 last weekend at Utah State, but several gymnasts performed their best of the season to date: Eliane Kulczyk (9.800) and Haylee Rollins (9.750) on the vault, KayCee Gassaway (9.750) for her floor routine and Ashley Follett (9.700) and Summer Raymond (9.700) on the balance beam.
Rollins and sophomore Makenzie Johnson lead the team with an average of 9.808 on the bars and vault, respectively. Denver’s Nina McGee is ranked No. 12 in the country for her 9.900 average score on the floor routine.
The meet will be broadcast on BYUtv and can also be seen online at byutvsports.com.