BYU gymnastics: Cougars finish third at Perfect 10 Challenge

OKLAHOMA CITY – The BYU women’s gymnastics team got off to a fast start but finished in third place with a 194.175 at the Perfect 10 Challenge in Oklahoma City on Friday night.

The Cougars finished behind No. 2 Oklahoma’s 197.450 and No. 16 Boise State’s 195.575. Texas Woman’s scored a 191.425 for a fourth-place finish.

“We have two home meets coming up and we need to push until the end,” head coach Brad Cattermole said. “We scored well on bars and I was happy with that but we just had an off night on beam. We’ll need to come home and regroup for the rest of the season now.”

BYU notched a season high on the bars to start the meet with a 49.050. Haylee Rollins tied a season best with a 9.875 and three more Cougars tied or set their career highs. Eliane Kulczyk scored a 9.825, Sarah Yandow Wensel posted 9.800 and Marguerite Lindstrom recorded a 9.750. Raquel Willman also added a 9.800.

The beam wasn’t as successful for the team with a few miscues. However, freshmen Summer Raymond impressed in her second career routine on the beam with an even better score than her first with a 9.825. Makenzie Johnson picked up a 9.775 and Willman added 9.750, but BYU scored just a 48.000 as a team.

On the floor exercise, the Cougars rebounded with a 48.750. Rollins led with a 9.825 and Wensel and Kulczyk grabbed matching 9.750’s. Megan Bain added a 9.725 and Willman scored a 9.700.

Wensel and Johnson had BYU’s highest scores on the vault with a pair of 9.775’s. Willman nabbed a 9.725 as the Cougars went on to finish the vault a team score of 48.375 en route to a third-place finish on the night.

Willman finished the all-around completion with a score of 38.975.

BYU returns to the Smith Fieldhouse to host Southern Utah on Saturday, Feb. 23 at 1 p.m. MST.

Kenny is a BYU graduate, currently working as a football media relations assistant and gymnastics SID at BYU. Contact him at cougarpr@byu.edu and follow him on twitter @KennyCoxKC