PROVO, Utah – The BYU women’s gymnastics team will honor the seniors in its last home meet as it hosts Southern Utah Saturday afternoon.
“SUU is a great team and they’re in the top 20, but they’re beatable, especially at our home,” BYU head coach Guard Young said. "We just have to do our job of hitting and sticking.”
This year’s seniors include Makenzie Johnson Halliday, Emily Vidmar and Mikaela Jones. All three seniors have competed in every meet this season. Halliday leads the group scoring a career-high on beam with a 9.925. Halliday also notched scores of 9.925 on vault and floor and a 9.875 on bars throughout her career. Vidmar has been a stable competitor in her time at BYU as well. She set a career high on beam this season against Boise State with a 9.875 and has had scores of 9.850 and 9.900 on bars and floor, respectively, during her career. Jones has also seen every meet competing on vault, beam and floor. She has personal highs of 9.875 and 9.850 on vault and beam, respectively.
“It's going to be a special night for our seniors,” Young said. “It’s their last time they’ll be here at BYU representing their school. We still have several meets left, but this will be their last one at home. It will be a special night to honor them.”
The Cougars and Thunderbirds met two weeks ago in Cedar City where several falls on the beam kept the Cougars from coming out on top, 195.975-194.000. Last week Southern Utah beat No. 3 Michigan to move into the No. 18 ranking. The Thunderbirds also set a season high score of 196.300, their fifth highest score in school history. Junior Virginia Brownsell scored a 9.950 on floor to tie the highest score ever in SUU history.
“My experience with senior night is that the emotion carries over and you get good performances,” Young said. “I expect to see good performances from our seniors like we’ve seen all year.”
The meet begins at 1:00 p.m. MST in the Smith Fieldhouse. It will be televised live on BYUtv with live stats found on the BYU gymnastics schedule page.