Kennedy Schneider earns a 9.875 on floor exercise on March 9, 2018
(Tucson, AZ) Kim Doss
After a trip to face the SEC’s tenth-ranked Arkansas Razorbacks last week, the Arizona GymCats returned home to compete under their new permanent head coach Friday night. Nineteen-year assistant John Court had the interim tag removed from his position Wednesday, and the GymCats came out with a victory in their first meet with the stability of a permanent leader. Arizona won for the second time in McKale this season with a final score of 195.725.
The GymCats played host to the North Carolina Tarheels, the Air Force Academy Falcons and the San Jose State Spartans in their final home meet of the season. While they started off a bit shaky on vault, the GymCats led from the start. Strong outings on balance beam and uneven parallel bars were enough to overcome lower scores on floor exercise, allowing the GymCats to keep their lead over second-place San Jose State.
The opening rotation ended with Arizona ahead with a 48.700 on vault. SJSU opened with a 48.600 on floor, followed by UNC’s 48.175 on the uneven parallel bars, and AFA’s 48.000 on balance beam.
The GymCats stretched their lead over SJSU slightly in the second rotation, putting up a score of 49.100 on the uneven parallel bars to SJSU’s 49.025 on vault.
Kennedy Schneider on balance beam, where the GymCats put up their second highest score of the season.
The balance beam was the showcase event for the GymCats, with the team earning a score of 49.275 in the third rotation. Both Madison Cindric and Victoria Ortiz earned 9.900 on the apparatus, and the GymCats were able to drop a solid low score of 9.775.
While Coach Court was happy with the results on balance beam, he stressed in the Arizona press release that the team needs to put together four rotations like that. After the third rotation, the GymCats were ahead of second-place San Jose State by a score of 147.075 to 146.150. By the end of the meet, that 0.925 lead had shrunk to a winning margin of 0.700.
The final score was made closer by a floor exercise that saw only one GymCat score over 9.800, and the team counting a score of 9.550. Kennedy Schneider was the highest scoring Arizona gymnast on the final rotation, closing the team’s effort with a 9.875 on floor.
When the meet ended, the GymCats’ 195.725 and SJSU’s 195.025 were followed by UNC’s score of 194.850 and AFA’s 194.275.The All Around competition was won by Arizona’s Cindric, who turned in a score of 39.200. She was followed by teammate Maddi Leydin, whose score of 39.125 gave the GymCats their first 1-2 All Around finish this season. Taylor Chan of SJSU took third place with a score of 39.025.
The GymCats will be off to Baton Rouge to face the Louisiana State Tigers next weekend. LSU posted a score of 197.575 in their win against #24 North Carolina State. The GymCats hope to improve their consistency to notch another victory before the PAC-12 Championships come to McKale Center on March 24th.
