With nerves rattling and his Kentucky gymnastics team still very much still a work in progress, Tim Garrison knew Excite Night wouldn’t go perfectly.Hosting the season’s first meet, that was actually the point.”What we wanted to see was fight, grit,” Garrison said. “If they struggled to not let it affect them. And that’s exactly what we saw tonight.”It was on display within the first few routines.UK opened on vault and the second and third Wildcats up — Kayla Hartley and Shelby Hilton — posted scores of 9.400 and 9.600, respectively. But rather than let the early disappointment affect them, the Cats responded with solid routines by Shannon Mitchell, Kenzie Hedges and Holly Cunningham.”They very easily could have put their heads down and given up on them,” Garrison said. “They didn’t. They took a step forward, pulled their chest up and performed well for the rest of the way.”With vault behind them, the No. 21 Cats went on to take down No. 15 Penn State (193.975), West Virginia (193.700) and Ball State (190.875) in Memorial Coliseum. The 5,839 fans in attendance loved every moment, from pre-meet festivities to the final routine on floor.”It was electric,” Garrison said. “It was a fun night. When one of our athletes would hit a landing, the whole place would just go crazy. That’s what we want to bring back three weeks from now when we come back and compete here.”UK’s final score initially came in at 194.900, but an inquiry into two different starting scores yielded an extra tenth of a point and gave the Cats a 195.000, as well as a psychological boost.”It makes a big difference hearing 194, even if it’s a 194.9, to a 195 because we wanted to at least get a 195,”Audrey Harrison said. “It wasn’t our best at all, but it’s definitely good start.”Harrison won her 12th-career all-around title on Friday with a 39.075, turning in a performance representative of her team’s. She was disappointed in her bar routine after she scored a 9.700, but was undeterred. She followed it up with a 9.850 on beam and a 9.825 on floor, her two best scores of the night.”Tim was telling us at the end and all throughout that he liked the fight because we didn’t give away anything,” Harrison said. “Someone could have fallen but they didn’t and they saved it. We saw that on each event where people were trying not to give away anything to get the highest score possible.”Though Harrison was in a familiar role as UK’s top all-arounder, many of her teammates found themselves in new positions.Hilton competed in all-around for the first time as a Wildcat, scoring a 38.700. She will surely post higher scores as the season goes on, but Garrison called her effort “special” nonetheless. Mitchell, meanwhile, had a 9.725 in her first vault routine and true freshman Montana Whittle a 9.775 on bars, her first college routine.”It’s just a good experience,” Harrison said. “We had a lot of new people out there tonight, so having this meet under their belt’s going to help. We’re just to take that excitement, keep the fight and then just give away even less next time.”Throughout the offseason, Garrison has said he wants consistency to be the hallmark of his team. In terms of technique, the Cats aren’t there yet. But as they prepare for arguably the nation’s toughest schedule, their approach is looking good.”We were consistent because we were consistently fighting,” Garrison said. “We didn’t hit everything. It was definitely not a flawless night, but it was a night where we were able to come back from subtle mistakes that were made and make a good show of it.”