 "Photo: Lennie Mahler")
Led by all-around winner Jamie Deetscreek, the Red Rocks bounced back from their season-opener loss to UCLA last weekend with a win over Iowa State on Friday.
In its first home meet of the season, Utah got its first win against the Cyclones, 196.30-195.35.
“It was better,” said co-head coach Greg Marsden. “It was still far from perfect, but still better than last week. We’re not going to resolve all of our issues in one week, but there was certainly more energy and better execution in some places.”
In the first event of the meet, the Red Rocks put up much better scores in the vault than they did last week against UCLA, highlighted by a near-perfect vault by Kyndal Robarts. Robarts stuck her landing, earning a 9.925—new career-high score on vault.
“I just had a lot of energy going because the crowd was really good,” Robarts said. “I think I did a really good vault, which enabled me to stick it. It felt really good.”
After the first rotation, Utah had a 49.175-48.9 lead.
On the uneven bars, Utah struggled, with no team members scoring a 9.9. Deetscreek led the team with a 9.875. The uneven bars were the only event of the night in which Iowa State outscored the Red Rocks. Following the second rotation, Utah still had the lead, 98.025-97.850.
On the beam, a near fall by Stephanie McAllister and a fall by Katelyn Mohr started the rotation for Utah. The rest of the team responded well to the pressure, highlighted by a 9.9 score from Deetscreek, her first 9.9 of the night. Annie DiLuzio earned a tie for a career high on the beam with a 9.850.
The Cyclones also had a fall on the beam. A near-even performance from both Utah and Iowa State on the balance beam put Utah up by only .375 with a score of 147.025-146.650 heading into the final rotation.
“I was really impressed with not only how (Iowa State) performed and how talented they were, but they did it in a very difficult environment that a lot of teams don’t do that well in,” Marsden said. “I was very impressed with Iowa State, about halfway through the meet, I thought I was going to be too impressed with Iowa State.”
On the floor in front of a crowd of 12,605, the Red Rocks did what they do best—performed for their fans. After the fall from McAllister, the rest of the team put up high scores, pushing its final score to nearly a point more than Iowa State. DiLuzio earned the highest score of any gymnast for the night with her 9.950 for her floor routine.
“The fans get all excited and then we get all excited, and it lightens the mood,” DiLuzio said. “It makes it easier to perform.”
Utah’s other all-around gymnast, Daria Bijak, put up solid performances in almost every event, with a 9.850 on both vault and beam and a 9.9 on the floor.
After the meet, the team said its hard week in practice and the wake-up call from UCLA last week contributed to the win.
“I think as much as we hated this week of practice, it definitely paid off,” Deetscreek said. “We came in here more prepared and more focused and knowing we were going to have a good time because of all our fans. It’s so much easier to compete here than on the road.”
Utah will welcome five-time defending national champions Georgia to the Huntsman Center this week. The meet is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Friday.
p.fieldsted@chronicle.utah.edu
Be the first to comment on this article!