CEDAR CITY, Utah – The Southern Utah University gymnastics team will open its season Friday when it takes on Utah, Utah State and Brigham Young in the Best of Utah meet at the Maverik Center Friday night.
MEET INFO
Southern Utah vs Best of Utah (Utah, Utah State, BYU)
Date: Friday, January 7, 2022
Time: 7:00 p.m. MT
Location: West Valley City, Utah
Venue: Maverik Center
TV: byuTV
Live Stream | Live Results | Tickets | Southern Utah Notes (PDF)
SOUTHERN UTAH NOTES
-The Thunderbirds begin 2022 ranked 25th in the nation in the Women's College Gymnastics Associate poll.
-Southern Utah finished the 2021 season at the NCAA Regionals where they scored a 195.975 to finish ahead of Boise State and behind Utah and Arizona State.
-SUU finished fourth at last season's Best of Utah meet.
-The Flippin' Birds roster 29 gymnasts this season, including nine seniors. Hannah Nipp and Morgan Alfaro are both back for an extra season for the Thunderbirds.
-Before the start of the 2022 season, SUU head coach Scotty Bauman signed a contract extension that will keep him in Cedar City as SUU's coach through the 2024 season.
-Former Southern Utah gymnast Elise Wheeler was inducted into the Southern Utah Athletics Hall of Fame in October of 2021. Regarded as the best gymnast in the history of the program Wheeler made a massive statement right away to start off her career, as the San Diego native won WAC Freshman of the Year during her first campaign as a Flippin' Bird. As both a sophomore and a junior, Wheeler qualified for the NCAA National Championship meet in the all-around. Following her junior season, she was named NCAA North Central Region Gymnast of the Year and WAC Gymnast of the Year. To cap off her career as a Thunderbird, Southern Utah won the WAC Championship as a team in 2010. She was also NCAA North Central Region Gymnast of the Year and WAC Gymnast of the Year. This all culminated with her making her third-consecutive NCAA Championship appearance in the all-around, where she finished in 12th place. To this date, Wheeler holds the top four all-around scores in the history of the program, with the top score standing at 39.575.
LAST YEAR'S BEST OF UTAH
The Southern Utah gymnastics program opened its 2021 campaign at the Best of Utah meet at the Maverik Center on Saturday evening, as they finished in fourth place amongst Utah's three other Division I gymnastics teams with a 194.325.
The University of Utah won the meet with a 196.900. Mountain Rim Gymnastics Conference foes BYU (195.700) and Utah State (194.350) finished in second and third respectively.
Southern Utah started the night on vault, where they were led by a pair of 9.775's by Morgan Alfaro and Rachel Smith. Karley McClain started her all-around effort with a 9.750 in her opening routine.
As a team, the Thunderbirds scored a 48.625 on the opening event.
When the T-Birds moved to bars, Mayson Bentley scored the first 9.900 of the night in her first routine as a Thunderbird to lead the team on the event. Shylen Murakami hit a 9.850 for SUU, and SUU scored a 49.000 as a team on their second event of the night.
Bentley's bars score was the best of the night, earning her the event title.
Unfortunately for SUU, the momentum they built on bars didn't quite transition to beam. Despite some strong routines, the T-Birds ended up having to count multiple falls on the event.
Beam was highlighted by a 9.850 by McClain, and a 9.825 by Shylen Murakami.
As a team in their third rotation, the T-Birds scored a 47.875.
Southern Utah wrapped up the meet on floor, where they were led by a 9.875 from McClain. Molly Jozwiakowski had a 9.825, and Smith had a 9.800 to highlight the final rotation.
SUU's final event score of the night was a 48.825, bringing their total score to a 194.325.
McClain finished fourth in the all-around, scoring a 39.225. Utah's Cristal Isa had the top all-around score with a 39.400.
LAST TIME OUT
The Southern Utah gymnastics team saw their season come to an end as they finished in third place in session one of the NCAA Regional Championship Semifinals. The Flippin' Birds scored a 195.975, their highest score at the regional championship since 2015 when they scored a 196.275.
They edged out MRGC-opponent Boise State, who scored a 195.825, but fell to Utah and Arizona State, who will both move on to the regional final.
Southern Utah started the night on vault where they scored a 48.725 as a team. Morgan Alfaro had the high score with a 9.775 while both Karley McClain and Celine Barney scored a 9.750. Caitlin Kho and Rachel Smith rounded out the scoring with a 9.725 each.
On bars, the Flippin' Birds hit their highest score of the afternoon with a 49.150 as a team. Mayson Bentley led the way with a 9.900, the highest score of the day on any event for the T-Birds. She also finished tied for second on the event overall, trailing only ASU's Cairo Leonard-Baker who scored a 9.950. Caitlin Kho and Nikki Thomas both earned a 9.825 while Aubri Schwartze and Shylen Murakami both scored a 9.800.
The Thunderbirds next moved to beam where they scored a 48.975, led by a 9.850 from McClain. Hannah Nipp and Emma Wissman both scored a 9.825 and Murakami hit a 9.775. Schwartze rounded out the scoring with a 9.700.
The Flippin' Birds finished strong on floor where they scored a 49.125, allowing them to move past Boise State for their third place finish. Schwartze, the reigning MRGC Freshman of the Year, led the way for Southern Utah on the event with a 9.875. McClain scored a 9.850, Kayla Horton hit a 9.825, and Caitlin Kho scored a 9.800. Both Nipp and Stephanie Tervort scored a 9.775 to round out the scoring.
FOLLOW US
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