CEDAR CITY, Utah – Having wrapped up the regular season with a perfect record at home, the Southern Utah University gymnastics team will now look to find increased road success as it closes out the 2022 campaign at the Mountain Rim Gymnastics Conference Championship Saturday night.
MEET INFO
Southern Utah at MRGC Championship
Date: March 19, 2022
Time: 6 p.m. MT
Location: Boise, Idaho
Venue: Extramile Arena
Stream: Mountain West Network
Watch | Live Results | Southern Utah Meet Notes
SOUTHERN UTAH NOTES
-Southern Utah defeated every MRGC rival at home this season, but conversely, dropped every road match in conference competition. One of those outings, at BYU, resulted in SUU's highest score of the season with a 197.000.
-Shylen Murakami was named MRGC Bars Specialist of the Week while Aubri Schwartze and Hannah Nipp shared Beam Specialist of the Week honors.
-The Thunderbirds finished fourth at the MRGC Championship a season ago after posting a score of 196.225.
-SUU earned a second-place finish at the MRGC Championship in 2016, which is the last time the event was held in Boise.
-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.
-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.
LAST TIME OUT
The Southern Utah University gymnastics team recorded a 196.975 to earn a win over William & Mary in the season finale before recognizing its seniors Friday night at the America First Event Center.
The Thunderbirds completed a perfect season at home with the 196.975-188.550 victory. SUU also celebrated a new school record with a team score of 49.425 on beam.
VAULT (49.100)
SUU opened the meet strong with Morgan Alfaro and Caitlin Kho leading the way in the opening rotation. The senior duo posted identical 9.875s and were followed by fellow senior Rachel Smith who contributed a score of 9.825.
BARS (49.200)
Another senior shined during the bar rotation as Shylen Murakami registered a score of 9.925 for Southern Utah. Aubri Schwartze, Hannah Nipp and Karley McClain all pitched in scores of 9.825.
BEAM (49.425)
The record-setting beam rotation came courtesy of big performances from Nipp and Schwartze. Also celebrating her senior night, Nipp recorded a 9.925 and Schwartze followed with the same score. Muarakami and Hailey Vultaggio also had strong showings with similar scores of 9.875.
FLOOR (49.250)
To put the finishing touches on senior night and the final regular season meet, Nipp hit the 9.900 mark on her floor routine. McClain followed with a 9.875, and Vultaggio supplemented SUU's score with a 9.850 of her own.
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