Two Road Meets Await Cougars

PROVO -- After landing season-high 196.300 in its last home meet of the year, the No. 32 BYU gymnastics team continues its season on the road with two meets next week.

First the Cougars will go head-to-head with No. 25 Southern Utah on Monday. Then they will face No. 17 Arizona and No. 40 Cal State Fullerton on Friday in a tri-meet at the University of Arizona.

"These should be fun meets for us," said BYU head coach Brad Cattermole. "The girls are feeling better and are excited about the outcome of the last few meets."

In their last competition the Cougars recorded season-high scores in all four events. Vault proved to be BYU's strongest event with 49.200, the highest event score of the year so far. Seniors Alethea Boon and Dayna Smart-Allen earned a remarkable 9.900 score on the event, the highest individual marks of the evening. The Cougars are currently ranked No. 29 nationally on the apparatus.

A total of four gymnasts surpassed personal-best marks, including senior Kylee Draper-Marvin who earned career-best marks on both bars (9.850) and beam (9.800).

BYU will first compete against in-state foe SUU. It is the third time the two teams have faced each other this season. In their last meeting the Cougars edged their way to a 194.550-193.300 home victory over the Thunderbirds. By the time the two teams face each other on Monday it will have only been 10 days between their last head-to-head meet.

Later in the week, BYU will travel even farther south for its last triangular meet of the season. This will be the first time BYU and Arizona have competed this year. In their most recent competition last year the Cougars finished just ahead of the Wildcats 195.675-195.300 in a tri-meet with SUU. But, this meet will mark the second time BYU has faced Cal State Fullerton this season. The Titans posted 193.575 over the Cougars' 193.350.

"I don't assume we will score a 196.300 every time," Cattermole said. "We just need to hit our routines like we did in the last meet, and we will start moving up in rankings."

Monday's meet begins at 7 p.m. MT and competition will start at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Both meets will be available via live stats found at http://www.byucougars.com/gymnastics_w/.