Logan, Utah - The Thunderbird gymnastics team and the Utah State Aggies met for the second consecutive week in Logan on Friday night at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum, and despite a solid performance from the T-Birds, the Aggies won the duel meet 195.425-195.250.

The T-Birds had the lead going into the final rotation, but a solid effort by the Aggies on the floor and some struggles on the beam for SUU led to USU walking away with the victory.

SUU head coach Scott Bauman said he liked a lot of what he saw during the meet, but there are still some things he would like to see the team improve on.

“We still really need to just put an entire meet together, but I saw some really nice, selfless gymnastics out there tonight,” he said. “But at the same time we made great strides on bars, and it's like we take two steps forward and one step back a little bit, we've got to make sure that we just eliminate those mistakes.”

When talking about selfless gymnastics, Bauman referred to Danielle Ramirez, who made a change to her bar routine and pulling herself on floor.

SUU junior Stacie Webb said she was happy with the attitude of the team throughout the meet, and they just keep on making improvements as the weeks go on.

“The energy of the team was really good today and I think this meet was just one step forward,” Webb said about the meet. “In the past we've been counting falls, and in this meet even though we didn't have the best performance we weren't counting any falls, so that's a step forward to pay attention to.”

The Thunderbirds started the night on bars, an event that hasn't been particularly been kind to the team as of late, but they bounced back in a big way in Logan scoring a 48.975, a team high on the event this season.

Kirsten Yee led the charge on bars, scoring a 9.875. Ramirez was not far behind with a 9.850. Yee was second on the bars for the night, however, Charly Belliston scored a 9.900 on the uneven bars for the Aggies.  

The Thunderbirds kept their success going on the vault, led by Ramirez who scored a 9.875. Virginia Brownsell was second on the team close behind with a 9.850, which tied her personal best, followed by Karen Gonzalez with a 9.800. The team scored a 49.025 on the event as a team and had a 98.000 after two rotations.

Ramirez, Brownsell and Gonzalez took first, second and third respectively in the event, as USU's highest score came from McKinzey Martinez, who scored a 9.775.  

Brownsell continued her successful night on the floor, where she scored a 9.850 to lead the T-Birds. Webb had the second highest score for SUU with a 9.825.

Brownsell said she added a new pass in her floor routine, and said she was really excited to show it off tonight.

“We wanted to up the difficulty of my floor routine, so I wouldn't get that tenth deduction,” she said. “I think it went great.”

Hayley Sanzotti from USU had the top floor score of the evening, scoring a 9.875.

Webb went second on the beam for the Thunderbirds, scoring a 9.900, which was the highest score of the night for the team on any event. SUU's next highest score came from Natalie Trejo, who scored a 9.775.  

“It felt like tonight I finally went out and did the things that I know I can do and I finally just performed the way that I personally enjoyed,” Webb said about her performance on Friday night.

USU's Sanzotti matched Webb's beam score, also scoring a 9.900 to tie for the event championship.

Utah State's Bailey McIntire was the lone gymnast to compete the all-around on Friday, scoring a 39.150.

Next up for the Thunderbirds will be a home meet against another MRGC opponent, as SUU will host No. 10 Boise State Broncos.

This will be the first of a three-meet home stand, where the T-Birds will also face Brigham Young University and Sacramento State on February 12th and No. 3 Michigan and UC Davis on February 19th.