CORVALLIS, Ore. - The Southern Utah gymnastics team competed at the NCAA Regional Championship in Corvallis, Oregon Friday afternoon and finished in fourth place in session one with a score of 195.350.
Denver and Boise State took the top two spots in session one and will move on to the final round of the regional meet tomorrow against the top two teams from session two.
"We made a couple of silly mistakes, but the girls fought. We didn't have anyone fall and I think all of our coaches made great decisions in the moment," head coach Scott Bauman said. "Every one of our beam and floor routines were phenomenal and after three rotations we were weren't even two tenths out of second place. I'm so proud of the girls and how they were able to overcome so much adversity this year and stay strong and I think they learned so much this year."
The Flippin' Birds put together their best performance as a team on floor, their third event of the night, scoring a 49.075. Hannah Nipp led the way on the event with a 9.875 which was tied for the second highest-score of the night for any team on the event. Karley McClain scored a 9.850 and Autumn Jorgensen scored a 9.825 in what was just her second floor routine of the season. Madison McBride and Madison Loomis rounded out the scoring with McBride scoring a 9.800 and Loomis scoring a 9.725.
The Thunderbirds opened the meet on bars where they scored a 48.850 as a team. McClain and Jorgensen had the high scores on that event both scoring a 9.800. Shylen Murakami earned a 9.775 and Caitlin Kho scored a 9.750. Stephanie Tervort rounded out the scoring with a 9.725.
Southern Utah also scored a 48.850 on beam where McClain had the high score with a 9.850. Karen Gonzalez was awarded a 9.800 and both Jorgensen and Murakami scored a 9.775. Nipp rounded out the scoring on the event with a 9.650.
It was a rough day on vault for the T-Birds as they scored a 48.575 on their final event of the meet. Morgan Alfaro had the high score with a 9.775 and Tervort earned a 9.750. Madison McBride scored a 9.700 and both McClain and Rachel Smith scored a 9.675.
McClain finished tied with Boise State's Courtney McGregor for fifth in the all-around standings. The MRGC Freshman of the Year scored a combined score of 39.175.
"Last year our freshmen were inconsistent, but they came so far between last year and this year. If our freshmen, who were phenomenal this year, can improve even half as much as last year's did we are going to be one scary team to contend with," Bauman said. "We will lose two of our best leaders in Kamryn Bayer and Karen Gonzalez, but we will return 22 of the 24 routines we competed tonight and we will have five of our key players back to full strength."
While they won't be continuing as a team, the Flippin' Birds will have to now await the results of tonight's second session to see if any of them will be moving on to tomorrow's final as an individual.
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