Jan. 17, 2013

What’s Up:

The No. 13 Arizona gymnastics team hits the road, traveling to Denton, Texas for the third meet of the season. This meet will also be the Cats’ third quad meet for the year, as the team will face home team Texas Woman’s, No. 25 BYU, and University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

The meet will take place Saturday, January 19 at 7:00p.m. CT (6:00p.m. MT) and free live stats and video feed will be available the day of the meet.

Scouting the Opposition:

No. 25 BYU: Arizona’s only DI competition of the upcoming meet No. 25 BYU is coming off of a win in its first home meet of the season. The team took down in-state rival Utah State 194.075-189.425. The team is led by RS sophomore Megan Bain, who posted career highs on beam (9.90) and floor (9.825) –and won the all-around with a score of 38.950. High scores also came from senior Haylee Rollins who won bars with a 9.875, and freshmen Eliane Kulczyk and Madeline Nilsson who both posted 9.750 on vault.   

Full Recap    

Texas Woman’s: Texas Woman’s is also coming off of a win this week, as the DII team won its season opener against Bowling Green. The team currently bolsters the MIC specialist of the week Bethany Larimer, who tied her career high beam score of 9.800 to win the event. The senior also competed on bars and vault for the team. Another Pioneer to watch is sophomore Spencer Jones, who won the all-around thanks to scores of 9.550 on vault, 9.375 on bars, 9.775 on beam and 9.525 on floor.

Full Recap

UWW: UWW comes to the 2013 season after tying for the DIII National Championships in 2012. The team appeared to carry the momentum into its first meet of the season, taking first in the Gustie Triangular this past weekend. On bars Annie Mix will be one to watch, as she posted the highest score for the team with a 9.500 and Megan Love led the team on beam with a 9.4. The Warhawks are a strong team on floor, posting a 46.950 in the meet, and the vault team totaled 46.475.

Full Recap

Last Week:

Arizona began the home campaign, earning a 195.850 to take second place of four. Stanford won the meet with a 196.025, Illinois took third with a 193.750, and San Jose State rounded out the meet with a 192.550.

The meet featured several strong debuts for the season, including freshman Lexi Mills’ first home bar set for a 9.775, junior Jordan Williams’ first home floor set for a 9.850, sophomores Allison Flores’ and Kristin Klarenbach’s first home vaults, and junior Shana Sangston’s first floor routine in the lineup for the season for a 9.800.

Other highlights included senior Aubree Cristello posting her career high beam score of 9.90, senior Molly Quirk posting her career high floor score of 9.90, and the floor lineup posting the highest team total (49.400) since 2004.

Full Release   

In the Rankings:

The 2013 Arizona gymnastics team began the season ranked No. 19 in the nation – after two weeks of competition the team has jumped significantly, moving up to No. 13 overall.

The team’s performances in competition so far has also made a difference in the conference: Arizona is currently ranked No. 3 in the conference, behind No. 1 UCLA and No. 10 Stanford, and ahead of No. 15 Utah, No. 17 California, No. 23 Oregon State, Arizona State and Washington.

From an event perspective, the team is ranked No. 22 on vault, No. 4 on bars, No. 24 on beam, and No. 19 on floor.

Individually the Cats are making an impact as well, with three gymnasts ranked within the top 25 on different events: Cristello is currently No. 3 in the all-around, No. 12 on beam, and No. 13 on floor; Quirk is No. 17 on bars; Klarenbach is No. 9 on floor.

Full Rankings

Keep up the Streak:

Last season, the Cats started off with excellence – then senior Katie Matusik earned a score of 9.900 on beam. That score started the fire; from the point on the Cats posted at least one score of 9.900 or better in every team competition for the rest of the season.

Thanks to Cristello’s score of 9.90 on beam and 9.925 on floor, as well as Quirk’s score of 9.90 on floor and Klarenbach’s 9.925 on floor that streak continues this season, marking the 15^th consecutive meet with at least one of these perfectly near perfect scores.

Complete list: Matusik 9.900 beam (Cancun Classic); Graham 9.925 floor (Oregon State); Cristello 9.925 floor (Arizona State); Cristello 9.900 floor (Texas Woman’s); Cristello 9.900 floor (Arizona State); Matusik 9.900 floor, Cardenas 9.900 floor, Cristello 9.950 floor (BYU); Cristello 9.900 floor (Washington); Matusik 9.900 beam (UC Davis); Cristello 9.900 vault (Stanford); Cristello 9.900 vault (New Hampshire); Cristello 9.925 floor (AFA, USU, Bridgeport); Matusik 9.900 beam (Pac-12 Championships); Matusik 9.900 beam, Williams 9.900 vault (NCAA Regional Championships); Cristello 9.950 vault (California, Kentucky, Auburn); Cristello 9.900 beam, 9.925 floor, Quirk 9.900 floor, Klarenbach 9.925 floor (Stanford, Illinois, San Jose State)

2012 Review:

The Wildcats completed the 2012 season with a regular season record of 13-5 and were able to make their 26th consecutive NCAA post-season appearance. Finishing fourth at the Pac-12 Championships and the NCAA Regional Championships, Arizona rounded out the season ranked No. 22 in the nation.

Major contributors included then senior Katie Matusik, and then-junior Aubree Cristello who were the two qualifiers to the NCAA National Championships (Matusik for beam and Cristello for the all-around).

Matusik renewed her title of “beam queen” qualifying to the NCAA Championships event finals and taking third place overall with a score of 9.8875. Throughout the season, Matusik posted six scores of 9.90, one of which earned Matusik the title of first-team All-American. Matusik’s beam excellence also earned her a second consecutive title of first-team All-Pac-12 on the event. Her contributions did not stop there, however, as she was a leading scorer for the Cats on bars and floor as well, posting high scores of 9.875 on both events.

Cristello was one of the team’s top all-around athletes, posting two high scores of 39.475 garnering Pac-12 Gymnast of the Week honors as well as breaking into the top 10 all-time all-around performances for the program (No. 9). Cristello was so consistent overall that she earned her third consecutive first-team All-Pac-12 all-around honor – the only gymnast in Arizona history to earn such recognition.

A number of Wildcats were ranked within the top 100 on individual events throughout the season, the highest rankings for each girl are as follows:  Matusik was No. 30 on bars (the week of 2/29), No. 13 on beam (the week of 3/7) and No. 73 on floor (the week of 3/13); Cristello was No. 38 on vault (the week of 3/7), No. 38 on bars (the week of 3/7), No. 5 on floor (the week of 3/7) and No. 14 all-around (the week of 3/13); Molly Quirk was No. 55 on beam (the week of 3/3) and No. 49 all-around (the week of 3/7); Jordan Williams was No. 58 on vault (the week of 3/7); Rebecca Cardenas was No. 87 on bars (the week of 3/13); and Kristin Klarenbach was No. 99 on floor (the week of 3/13).

Look Out for New GymCats:

Arizona added a number of new faces this season, including Shelby Edwards out of San Tan Valley, Ariz., Lexi Mills hailing from Frisco, Texas, Sloughouse California native Jessie Sisler, and Krishna Yemany from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. All of these gymnasts were top J.O. or Canadian Elite competitors and should make a dent in the lineups this season.

Pre-season Rankings:

The Arizona gymnastics team heads into the season ranked No. 19 in the 2013 Women’s Pre-Season Coaches poll. The Wildcats are one of six Pac-12 schools to place within the top 25, including No. 2 UCLA, No. 5 Utah, No. 6 Stanford, No. 9 Oregon State and No. 17 Washington.

Stacked to the Max:

The Arizona gymnastics team is going to complete an extremely difficult season in 2013. Of the 12 regular season meets and 20 regular season opponents, the Cats will face 11 ranked teams during eight meets (six of which within the top 10). Those opponents include No. 2 UCLA, No. 4 Oklahoma, No. 5 Utah, No. 6 Stanford, No. 7 Nebraska, No. 9 Oregon State, No. 13 Auburn, No. 17 Washington, No. 18 Illinois, No. 21 Missouri, and No. 25 Kentucky.

Ryden’s Record:

Head Coach Bill Ryden bolsters an overall record of 197-189-3 after the home season opener.

What’s Coming Up:

The Wildcats get set to take on their third conference opponent No. 15 Utah at home. The meet will take place Friday, January 25 at 7:00p.m.