TEMPE, Ariz. – Following a 10-day break, the West Virginia University gymnastics team returns to competition with a tri meet at No. 21 Arizona State, with No. 14 BYU, on Wednesday, March 13, at the Wells Fargo Arena at 9:30 p.m. EST.
Wednesday is the Mountaineers' (16-7, 0-4) first meet since finishing second at No. 23 Ohio State on March 2 with a season-best road score of 196.1. The Buckeyes finishes first (196.85), and both teams defeated Temple (194.0).
"It's going to be a tough competition," Mountaineer coach
Jason Butts said. "We have to travel across the country to face two very good teams who are ranked above us. We need to step-up our game plan and our energy. We are competitive with these teams, and I would love to bring two wins back home and get a great road score."
WVU is 7-3 in tri meets this season, 12-3 away from Morgantown and 0-4 against ranked teams. The Mountaineers will open the meet on uneven bars for the second time in as many competitions. At OSU, WVU finished second on the event with a 48.975 score, its second-best point total of the season and top road score.
"We have to come out of the gate and knock it out of the park," Butts said. "We have seven great routines. We have to come out of the gate and get as close to that 49.0 as possible. We almost got it at Ohio State. We need that 49.0. We've come really far on that event since October, and that's a testament to their hard work."
WVU is 2-2 all-time against the Sun Devils (9-10, 1-5 Pac-12) and 0-1 against the Cougars (8-5, 3-2 MRGC). Last season, the No. 16 Mountaineers dropped a 196.475 – 195.875 decision to No. 14 ASU at the WVU Coliseum on Jan. 14. Wednesday's meet is WVU's first against BYU since losing, 185.2 – 184.05, at Georgia in 1990.
Though the Mountaineers own an improved National Qualifying Score (NQS) of 195.635, WVU dropped two spots to No. 28 in this week's Road to Nationals Rankings. WVU ranks No. 13 on floor exercise (49.24 NQS) and No. 23 on vault (48.97 NQS).
Seniors
Kirah Koshinski and
Jaquie Tun own a combined three national rankings. Koshinski, a Berwick, Pennsylvania, native, ranks No. 10 on vault (9.905 NQS) and No. 17 on floor exercise (9.915 NQS), while Tun, a native of Chattanooga, Tennessee, ranks No. 39 on floor exercise (9.89 NQS).
Tun paces the Mountaineers on uneven bars with a 9.825 NQS, and freshman
Rachel Hornung owns a team-best 9.785 NQS on balance beam. Additionally, junior
Abby Kaufman shows a team-high 38.98 NQS in the all-around.
Koshinski enters Wednesday's meet eyeing a few career milestones. With a team-best 1,413.225 career points to her name, she needs 5.55 points to break onto the WVU Career Points Top 20 List and 86.775 points to reach the 1,500 career-point plateau. Additionally, she ranks No. 2 in program history with 43 career scores of 9.9 or better and needs five more to match TeShawne Jackson's (2000-03) program record of 48. With one more vault score of 9.9 or better, she will set the program record at 24, and with one more floor score of 9.9 or better, she will match Jackson's school record of 21.
The Cougars are nationally ranked on all four events, and the Sun Devils are nationally ranked on each event but floor exercise. BYU ranks as high as No. 13 on balance beam (49.19 NQS), and ASU ranks as high as No. 19 on uneven bars (49.11 NQS).
The Sun Devils are coming off a third place, 194.825 showing at No. 6 Denver on March 10. The mark was a season low for ASU, who lost to the Pioneers (197.675) and No. 18 Nebraska (196.225) and defeated Pitt (194.2). Sophomore Cairo Leonard-Baker finished fourth in the all-around with a 39.05 score.
BYU topped No. 11 Boise State, 197.0 – 196.325, on March 7, in Boise, Idaho. The score was the Cougars' first 197.0 point total since 2004. Junior Shannon Evans, the reigning Mountain Rim Gymnastics Conference (MRGC) Gymnast of the Week, won the all-around with a career-bet 39.575 mark.
