Arizona’s first Big 12 gymnastics meet came last Sunday at Arizona State, the most familiar of foes. Its home opener was very different as Big 12 affiliate Denver came to town for just the fourth time in program history. The result was the same, though.
The GymCats had a dominant win over a conference opponent for the second straight week, defeating the Pioneers 196.775 to 194.600. The score was the best of the season for Arizona, which has improved its score each week. It also improved UA’s record to 8-1 overall and 2-0 in the Big 12.
Wins may not be as important in college gymnastics as they are in other sports, but they still have some meaning.
“Oh, yeah,” said senior gymnast Alysen Fears. “One hundred percent. We’ll always take a win, like all the time. It feels really good.”
As for Fears, she hasn’t been at her strongest early in the season. After the meet at ASU, head coach John Court said he thought she might be a little tight early in her final year of competition.
“The pressure is just coming from myself, I think, and just getting in my head,” Fears said. “But I’m figuring some things out and working it out, and I think I did that tonight, which feels really good. But I think I just had the normal nerves coming into season, and I think it was good for me to kind of get those out early in the season so that they don’t creep up on me later in the season when it’s really extra important.”
Fears won the all-around with a 39.450. It was just 0.025 below her career high. She set or matched her season high in three of four events. Only the 9.800 she earned on vault was below her best of the year. It came on an event that was scored rather tightly, though.
“The vaults were actually pretty good,” Court said. “They’re judging fulls a little bit harder this year. That’s okay. I mean, we know that if we do quality work, that’s what I’m happy about. It’s great to do quality work and get rewarded, but at least you’re leaving the event going like, ‘Hey, you know, I did my job.’”
The Yurchenko full is performed by all of Arizona’s vaulters. It can only earn a 9.950 even if it’s perfect. However, the risk of going for 10.0 start values became clear when it was Denver’s turn to vault.
After putting up a 49.275 on the uneven bars in the first rotation, Denver had a 0.500 lead over Arizona. The Pioneers came in ranked No. 13 on vault, primarily because if a team performs 10.0 vaults, they are at an advantage—as long as they land them.
Denver has four 10.0 vaults in their rotation. That’s over half of the lineup. They needed to hit after Madison Ulrich scored a 9.650. Two of her teammates did just that, but anchor Rosie Casali sat her vault down. That meant they would count Ulrich’s score.
Meanwhile, Arizona was putting together a huge performance on bars. Both Fears and fifth-year gymnast Elena Deets earned scores of 9.925. It was a season high for both of them, helping the GymCats post their collective season high of 49.425 on the event. The error by Denver on vault combined with Arizona rising to the occasion almost eliminated the gap between the two teams.
“We were down by five-tenths…I was asked on the headset, what are we going to do?” Court said. “What’s your strategy being down five-tenths? So I’m like, we’re not going to change our gameplay. We’re going to hit our handstands, we’re going to swing, we’re going to stick. And then it was down to one-tenth.”
Next up for Arizona was balance beam where it has its second-highest ranking of the four events. The GymCats’ 49.300 was another season high. Again, Deets and Fears were big parts of that after having various struggles in earlier meets.
Deets came into the season as Arizona’s best beam worker. She earned Big 12 Specialist of the Week the second week of the season after scoring a 9.900 on beam and a 9.850 on bars.
Then she had two straight weeks of atypical difficulties on the beam. She fell two weeks ago and had a significant balance check against ASU last week. Nothing of the kind happened this time.
Deets matched her 9.925 on bars with a 9.925 on beam. Part of that might have come from changes made by associate head coach Taylor Spears.
“Taylor took her out of the anchor spot (on beam),” Court said. “You know, just for what you said. It means a little bit less pressure for her. But she did the gymnastics that we’re all accustomed to seeing.”
While Arizona was putting together a season high 49.300 on beam, Denver ran into more problems on floor exercise. It was one of three events on which the Pioneers were ranked 15th or better. Like vault, they weren’t able to maintain the numbers they’ve had in previous meets.
Denver started with an 8.825 on floor. That would not be disastrous as long as the Pioneers could drop it. Two gymnasts later, a 9.625 made things a bit shakier. Then, another disastrously low score of 8.725 was flashed. The meet was essentially over.
Arizona went into the final rotation with a 1.300 lead. The GymCats had only one score below 9.800 on floor. Both Fears and Emma Strom scored 9.900.
Denver was on beam, its weakest event. The Pioneers came in ranked No. 37 on the balance beam, and their numbers at Arizona won’t help that. Once again, the team had two falls and another sub-9.700 score. They had to count a 9.675 and a 9.100.
After the first meet, Court said he thought this team would take a while to reach its potential. That’s not taking as long as expected.
“It’s been a great January,” he said.