PROVO -- In a close scoring meet, the No. 26 Cougars came in a close second to the No. 25 Arizona Wildcats at 195.350 to 195.150, Saturday night in the Smith Fieldhouse.
“We’re continuing to improve and I’m happy about that,” BYU head coach Brad Cattermole said. “However, this was one of our worst performances in the bars and this is a great bar team. We were able to make up for it and do really well on the beam. We’re learning that in order to compete big we need to take chances but when you do that, you make mistakes. We’re hoping to learn from those mistakes and come back and have a better meet next time.”
In the first rotation of the night, BYU started out strong on the bars with five of their six competitors scoring at 9.800 and higher. Natalie Eyre and Haylee Rollins tied for the high score at 9.875, while Eyre tallied her season high and Rollins a career high.
The team finished the first event with an impressive score of 49.175. After a successful rotation on the uneven bars, Arizona came in at a close second to BYU with their team score of 48.925.
Up next for the Cougars was the uneven bars where Rollins, tallying another career high, and Madeleine Johnson, also recording a career high, anchored the team with their scores of 9.875. Jennifer Lezeu stuck the landing to contribute a score of 9.725 while Sarah Yandow received a 9.700.
Arizona racked up high scores in the vault to put their total score at 97.950. BYU’s combined score came just short of the Wildcats at 97.600 after the second rotation.
In the third rotation for the night, BYU stayed balanced as they competed hard on the beam. Eyre received a 9.775 for her routine, while Krysten Koval received a 9.800. It was Lezeu who recorded the event high score of 9.825 on the beam. This event put the Cougars just ahead of Arizona at 146.450 to 146.150, before heading into the fourth and final rotation.
On the floor, Rollins and Megan Bain both contributed high scores of 9.775 to
BYU’s final of 48.700. Unfortunately for the Cougars, Arizona’s beam score totaled 49.200 putting them ahead of BYU for the team finals at 195.350 to 195.150.
The Cougars will next compete against Auburn on March 4 at home in the Smith Fieldhouse.