CEDAR CITY, Utah - The Flippin' Birds finished off the regular season with a win Friday night over the #24 University of Iowa and San Jose State University. The Thunderbirds scored a massive 196.900 to take the top spot followed by the Hawkeyes who finished with a 196.425 and the Spartans who posted a 195.425. The T-Birds led the whole way maintaining the lead throughout the meet.
Graduate Student Karley McClain took the All-Around competition tying her season-high in the process with a 39.475. The Flippin Birds scored the top marks in both the bars and vault. Graduate student Caitlin Kho tied for the top spot on the vault with a 9.900, and the bars continue to belong to graduate student Shylen Murakami who posted a 9.900 as well.
The T-Birds edged everyone on the beam scoring a top-five program score of 49.325 as a team. The Hawkeyes took the top spot in the vault and floor. The Thunderbirds came out on top in the bars as well with a score of 49.225.
VAULT (49.200)
As the host, the Thunderbirds started the meet on the vault for the first rotation. Kho got the T-Birds rolling and upped her season average scoring a 9.900. McClain took the next best score with a 9.850, then it was Freshman Kayla Pardue and sophomore Ellie Cacciola who each added a 9.825 to the total. The final score was a coin toss between Graduate student Rachel Smith and junior Hailey Vultaggio who both scored 9.800.
BARS (49.225)
The Flippin' Birds continued the meet with the bars for the second rotation. As a team they bounced back from a rough outing last week, scoring 49.225. The top score came from graduate student Shylen Murakami who led with 9.900. Kho upped the ante for the T-Birds with an impressive 9.850 and junior Aubri Schwartze matched it with a 9.850 of her own. Next up was McClain who contributed a 9.825 while graduate student Mayson Bentley added a 9.800 to wrap the event for Southern Utah.
BEAM (49.325)
Going to the third rotation the Thunderbirds were in the lead and looking to put the beam woes of the last three meets behind them. Murakami and McClain would help the T-Birds do just that each scoring a 9.925. Schwartze then posted a phenomenal 9.900 to the team score. Sophomore Ellie Cacciola added a 9.800 and the final score from the Thunderbirds would come from Smith with a 9.775. The Thunderbirds would capitalize on the big scores to send the meet to the fourth rotation with a lead of just over two-tenths of a point.
FLOOR (49.150)
In the fourth and final rotation, the T-Birds moved on to the floor and continued to impress with their strong routines. Four Thunderbirds would be at the top of the team score all with matching 9.875 scores. While it was powerful 9.875 routines from Vultaggio, Cacciola, and Schwartze at the top of the rotation, lower scores from the next two gymnasts put the meet in the experienced hands of Karley McClain. Trailing by four-tenths of a point, McClain would deliver adding her own 9.875 to bring home the win for the Thunderbirds.
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NEXT UP
The Flippin' Birds will play host to the Mountain Rim Gymnastics Conference Championship next Saturday, March, 18th at America First Event Center. The teams from the conference are BYU, Boise State, and Utah State. The Thunderbirds are looking to win their first MRGC Conference title next week at home. The Championship meet will begin at 6:00 PM MT and will be broadcast on ESPN+.
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