By KAREN DUFFIN
Coming off their best meet ever, the men’s gymnastics team was again able to dominate against Air Force Friday night.
Although it wasn’t the highest of scores, BYU was still able to take first place in every event and win the meet 222.6 to 208.65. Because no BYU gymnast competed in all six events, Air Force took the three top spots in the all-around.
The Cougars continue to be plagued by falls on the high bar. After a solid 9.3 opener by Ernie Higbee, it looked as though BYU might be able to shake its history of falls. However, the next four gymnasts fell, some of them more than once, to bring BYU’s score to only 34.95.
“We still need to increase our consistency on the high bar,” said Maka Sakamoto, BYU head coach. “We are going for the big tricks and not catching the bar.”
Sakamoto attributed the misses to lack of concentration and failure to complete the routines successfully in practice.
BYU’s team is made up of 20 gymnasts, but only 12 compete at each meet. For Friday’s meet, Sakamoto chose to put in several gymnasts who don’t usually have the opportunity to compete. He rested many of his top gymnasts in selected events, which resulted in the lower than usual scores.
“I wanted to try out guys who might have to compete at the end of the season because of injuries,” Sakamoto said.
BYU has had its share of injuries this year, with Warde Allen landing badly on a vault in the New Mexico and Arizona meet earlier this month. He dislocated his ankle and is out for the rest of the season.
Also sidelined for this season is Adam Fox, who dislocated a vertebrae in his back after missing a hold on the pommel horse. He underwent surgery earlier this week and will redshirt the season.
BYU heads to UCLA this Thursday to face six teams, including defending national champions Cal-Berkeley.
