Gymnasts Face Tough Test to Start Season

The BYU women's gymnastics team opens up its season Friday at Oregon State in what shapes up to be one of the Cougars' biggest tests of the season despite being just their first meet.

The meet will include two teams besides BYU and Oregon State as Florida and Iowa will also be competing. Oregon State and Florida were ranked 13th and sixth, respectively, in the preseason Top 25 Coaches Poll while BYU was 19th and Iowa was among those receiving votes.

"Those are three great teams. It's going to be extremely tough. They are phenomenally talented. You've got to be on your best game if you want to beat them," Coach Brad Cattermole said. "If we handle it well mentally, we should do okay."

Cattermole will depend heavily on junior Kacie Capra in the All-Around, who finished eighth overall at the North Central Regional last season. Sophomore Dayna Smart will be looked at to score well on vault and beam while freshman Hayley Jensen will also debut in the All-Around.

Oregon State and Florida have already begun their seasons. Oregon State opened up by finishing second at the Hawaiian Classic behind national-power UCLA while Florida received the highest score in the nation (195.90) up to this point in its win over Illinois.

Start time for the meet will be 7 p.m. with a live stats feed available on the schedule page of the BYU Women's Gymnastics homepage at www.byucougars.com.