By DAVE HERSAM
Despite its strong win over Utah State and second best score of the season, women’s gymnastics head coach Brad Cattermole called the team’s performance Monday flat as a pancake.
“I don’t mind mistakes that come from going for it, but we had too many low-energy mistakes,” Cattermole said.
But the ninth-ranked Cougars’ score was still 194.775, one point less than their season best. The Aggies scored 191.575, well below their season best of 194.1 and even below their season average.
BYU gymnasts were three of the top four finishers in the all-around competition and won three of the four individual events.
Senior co-captain Angela Andersen had the top scores on the uneven bars and floor with a 9.875 and 9.9 respectively, and won the all-around with a career best 39.3 and was named co-Cougar of the meet along with junior Natalie Emig.
Emig finished second in the all-around and tied her best score of the season on the floor. Freshman Kelly Christensen, who tied her season high on the vault with a 9.85, was the meet’s top scorer on that event and finished third in the all-around.
USU gymnasts Krissy Richards and Christy Denson tied for the best beam score of the night with matching 9.85’s.
“It was a kind of low energy meet,” Emig said. “But at least we pulled through.”
A bright spot for the Cougars was the lack of falls on the beam. On Thursday the team had three falls in the event.
“We were great on the beam,” Andersen said. “We focused on it, wanted to go six for six and we did.”
Cattermole said his team’s performance lacked sharpness and sparkle.
“We stayed on the beam but just barely, and didn’t look good doing it,” Cattermole said. “Maybe we didn’t fall because we didn’t have the adrenaline and weren’t really going for it.”
Andersen said the team’s low energy may have been affected by scheduling.
“Maybe the nerves from the last meet hadn’t totally settled,” Andersen said. “We were just kind of half-heartedly cheering for each other and not pumped up.”
Cattermole agreed the two meets close together may have affected the team but said it shouldn’t have.
“At this level of competition, if you can’t do well in meets close together you won’t go very far,” Cattermole said. “We might have focused on the beam to the expense of the other events.”
Utah State head coach Ray Corn called his team’s performance a disappointment.
“We started counting falls on the beam, then pulled within striking distance, but found a way to disappoint ourselves,” Corn said. “It’s happened all season long.”
USU junior Krissy Richards said there were some great individual performances but the team struggled.
“BYU is just a really good team and they hit their routines tonight,” Richards said.
Emig said the full week before the team’s next meet should provide the mental rest and hard practices necessary for the team to be ready. The Cougars will travel to Nebraska March 9 to take on the 19th-ranked Cornhuskers.
