Jan. 19, 2013
DENTON, Texas – The No. 13 Arizona women's gymnastics team came away with the first win of the season, earning a team score of 195.800. No. 25 BYU came in second with a 193.950, Texas Woman's earned bronze with a 191.475 and Wisconsin-Whitewater totaled a 185.900.
The Cats had some difficulties with landings in the first rotation, posting a team total of 48.550.
For a second week straight, however, Arizona made up for the first event in rotation number two, posting a season high 49.000 on beam. Senior Aubree Cristello had another wonderful week on the event, taking her third consecutive first place with a 9.850.
“For a girl that came in with beam as a worst event, what can you even say about her improvement?” Head coach Bill Ryden said. “When Aubree landed, I knew that we had a great beam score coming. It was exciting to know that when Aubree hit we had a strong beam score coming.”
The Cats then posted three of the four way tie for second place scores of 9.800, earned by junior Jordan Williams, sophomore Molly Quirk. Shelby Edwards performed her second no-handed routine this season for a 9.750 – the third highest score of the meet.
The Wildcats took this momentum and ran with it, posting a 49.150 on floor.
“Our floor team gets me as excited as it gets the audience excited – which is saying something being a coach,” Ryden said. “We are good on floor; it's fun, the team loves doing it, the team really gets into it and the performance just carries everyone away.”
For a second consecutive week, sophomore Allie Flores and junior Shana Sangston began the lineup with twin scores, this week both earning 9.825's to tie for third in the meet. Williams took it half a tenth higher with a 9.875 to earn second place, and sophomore Kristin Klarenbach won the event with a 9.900.
“Kristin is a national class floor worker, no doubt about that. Look at the rankings, and look at the routine – every detail has been taken care of, from the performance to the choreography to the tumbling. It has surpassed being a floor routine; it's a performance that you sit back and watch,” Ryden said.
Sangston started the final rotation for the Cats, leading off with a 9.725. From there, Flores posted a 9.800, Klarenbach contributed with a 9.775 and Williams earned the second highest vault score of the meet with a 9.875. Cristello finished the event with a first place score of 9.925.
“We definitely improved from last week in a direction we are going to need. We still have some improvements to make, but we have two girls with brand new vaults and there are going to be growing pains,” Ryden said.
Cristello won the all-around for a third week straight with a score of 39.150. Once again Flores and Williams both earned all-around scores, posting 38.975 and 38.725, respectively.
