Denver, Colorado - The Thunderbird gymnastics team opened their regular season on Saturday night against a pair of Big 12 Conference opponents, and finished in second place with a 194.100.

The Denver Pioneers won the meet with a 195.375 and the West Virginia Mountaineers took third with a 193.650.

SUU head coach Scott Bauman said his team got out a slower start than he would have liked, but he was really impressed with the way they responded.

“One of the biggest things you can learn from your team is how they handle adversity, bad situations, starting off bad in a rotation or a meet and how the team responds to that emotion that's down on the floor,” he said. “I'll be honest, we did not start off well at all, but the way the team came back was phenomenal, and that says a lot about the future of this team. They can handle that and they can figure it out and come back from it emotionally.”

The 'Birds started the night on the floor, where they were led by Madyson Blake who scored a 9.800. Stacie Webb was right behind her with a 9.775 and Danielle Ramirez was given a 9.750.

Denver's Nina McGee scored the top floor score on the night with a perfect 10.000.

SUU had a better rotation as they moved to vault, scoring a 48.875 as a team. Virginia Brownsell led the way with a 9.850 and Webb was given a 9.825.

WVU's Kirah Koshinski had the top score on vault with a 9.875.

The T-Birds received their first 9.900 of the young season when they rotated to bars and Kirsten Yee was given a 9.9 for her routine.

As a team the Thunderbirds had their highest event score on the bars, scoring 48.925. Ramirez posted a 9.850 and freshman Caitlyn Kessel was given a 9.750 for her bar routine.

McGee was able to match Yee's 9.900 to tie for the top score on the event.

The Thunderbirds wrapped up the night on beam where they scored their lowest event score of the night. Ramirez led the way on the beam with a 9.825, followed by Webb who was given a 9.775. Tyly Bozzuto was able to get a 9.725 on the beam for the Thunderbirds.

Ramirez tied for the top beam score of the night with Denver's Claire Hammen, who also scored a 9.825.

The T-Birds had two gymnasts complete the all-around, with Ramirez scoring a 39.200 and Karen Gonzalez scoring a 38.000. McGee had the highest all-around score, with a 39.250.  

Saturday was the first time Ramirez had completed the all-around since her freshman season, and she said it was a blast doing so.

“It just felt like practice,” she said. “Doing everything and it was really exciting to finally get to do floor, and practice translated into the meet and I was really excited to perform all of them.”

Gonzalez didn't compete her freshman year and turned around and competed in the all-around tonight. She said it was a great feeling.

“It was definitely really exciting, very different,” she said. “Last year I remember just really wanting to compete, it seemed super fun, and the first event I had so much fun but I couldn't get too excited so I had to take it one skill at a time because I tend to speed up everything, but it was very fun.”

Next up for the Thunderbirds is a home meet against the University of Utah. That meet is set to begin at 7 p.m. on Friday, January 15th.