Jan. 23, 2013

What’s Up:

The No. 13 Arizona gymnastics team heads home, taking on conference opponent No. 8 Utah in McKale.

The meet will take place Friday, January 25 at 7:00p.m. MT and free live stats and video feed will be available the day of the meet.

Scouting the Opposition:

No. 8 Utah: last week the Utes defeated three ranked teams with a score of 196.950 enabling them to jump seven spots in the rankings to No. 8 in the nation, and No.2 in the Pac-12. Gymnasts to watch include sophomores Georgia Debritz and Tory Wilson and junior Corrie Lothrop. Debritz won the all-around as well as three events last week, Wilson now bolsters two vault titles and a career high 9.95 on vault, and Lothrop has placed third all-around for two consecutive meets.    

Full Recap    

Last Week:

Arizona took on competition across the divisions, earning first place with a score of 195.800. Also DI BYU posted a 193.950 for second place, DII Texas Woman’s earned third with a 191.475, and DII UW-Whitewater rounded out the meet with a 185.900.

Despite some difficulties in the first event, the Cats posted three scores of 49.000 or better for the first time this season – vault earned a 49.100, beam earned a 49.000 and floor earned a 49.150.

Individual highlights came for sophomore Amber Wobma, senior Molly Quirk, junior Jordan Williams, sophomore Kristin Klarenbach and senior Aubree Cristello.

Last season, Wobma performed her career debut on vault in Texas for a score of 9.800– in last week’s meet, Wobma’s Texas beam debut earned the same score (tying with senior Molly Quirk’s season high twin score). Both scores contributed to the season high team beam score.

On floor, Klarenbach earned the meet winning 9.900, while Williams proved to be on the up and up, earning a new career high 9.875.

Cristello sealed the deal on vault, completing the rotation and wrapping up the meet for the Cats with a near perfect vault for a 9.925.

Full Recap  

Ahead of the Pac:

Thanks to her contributions to last week’s beam team (despite not being able to use her arms) freshman Shelby Edwards earned Pac-12 recognition as the Freshman/Newcomer of the Week.

Edwards is the first Wildcat of the season to be recognized by the conference, and the third person in conference history to receive the award.

“I’m very proud of Shelby; this award is great for her and our program. I feel like we have quite a few athletes worthy of conference recognition, and I’m proud that she’s the first and hopefully won’t be the last,” Ryden said.

Full Release

In the Rankings:

The Wildcats hold steady at No. 13 in the nation for the second week straight bolstering an increased season average of 195.492 and a record of 6-3 after the finish in Texas.

The team’s performances in competition so far have also made a difference in the conference: Arizona is currently ranked No. 4 in the conference, behind No. 4 UCLA, No. 8 Utah and No. 10 Stanford, and ahead of No. 16 Oregon State, No. 21 California, Arizona State and Washington.

From an event perspective, the team is ranked No. 19 on vault (a three ranking jump from last week), No. 11 on bars, No. 23 on beam (one ranking up from last week), and No. 11 on floor (up eight places from last week).

Individually the Cats are making an impact as well, with two gymnasts ranked within the top 25 on different events: Cristello is currently No. 10 in the all-around, No. 15 on vault, and No. 14 on beam; Quirk is No. 17 on bars; and Klarenbach is No. 8 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 Klarenbach’s 9.900 on floor and Cristello’s 9.925 on vault, that streak continues this season, marking the 16^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); Klarenbach 9.900 floor, Cristello 9.925 vault (BYU, TWU, UWW)

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 200-189-3 after the quad meet in Texas.

What’s Coming Up:

The Wildcats head north to Seattle, Wash. to compete in yet another conference meet against Washington. The meet will take place Friday, February 1 at 7:00p.m.