LEXINGTON ? The 20th-ranked Kentucky gymnastics team got individual titles from four different gymnasts and overcame a mid-meet injury to all-around performer Natalie Rubinstein to score victories over No. 17 West Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland in a quad meet on Friday at Memorial Coliseum.
The Wildcats 193.775 score came despite Rubinstein going down on vault and missing the rest of the meet. However, the rest of the team stepped up with defending NCAA Central Region vault champion Krystle Cook winning the vault (9.9), Lucy Burgin winning bars (9.825), Emily Green winning beam (9.825) and Heather Hite taking the floor title (9.825).
The vault title was the eighth of Cook?s career and her 20th overall crown. It led the way for Kentucky?s highest event score of the year, a 49.025. The Wildcats used that tally to gain an early lead and never let go.
The senior Burgin setting the tone on bars with a season high tying 9.825. Kentucky also got 9.7 or better out of Emilie Rymer (9.775), Cook (9.75) and Jamie Reimann (9.7) en route to a team tally of 48.625.
Well ahead at the midway point, Kentucky continued to stretch its lead in the third rotation. The Wildcats had meet high scores on vault, uneven bars and the balance beam. Freshman Hillary Ferguson, a Richmond native, took home her first career title in her first career beam routine. She registered a 9.825 to pace UK, which posted a season high 48.700 on the apparatus.
Cruising along and looking like they were about to post a huge score for the night, the Wildcats faltered on the floor exercise. Despite Hite?s sixth career title, which came on her first floor routine of the year, UK suffered three falls, having to count two in the event. The Wildcats scored a season low 47.425. However, none of the four teams cracked 48 on the floor all night.
Kentucky returns to action next Friday when it travels to perennial powerhouse Alabama for an SEC meet.