LEXINGTON ? Having been tantalizingly close for weeks, the Kentucky gymnastics team finally put an entire meet together and it resulted in the third-highest score in team history on Saturday night, a 196.200 that won a quad meet at Texas Woman?s University that also featured Bowling Green and Southeast Missouri.
Host Texas Woman?s finished second with a 194.875 while SEMO took third by registering a 194.295. Bowling Green rounded out the group with a 192.575. The meet marked the second time this season UK has won a quad meet.
?We finally put a meet together,? Kentucky head coach Mo Mitchell said. ?We went in and competed in all four events and hit in all four. That?s what we?ve been trying to get to all season. We know we have tremendous talent on the this team and tonight we put it all together and showed what we?re capable of.?
Freshman Emily Rymer led the charge with a stellar 39.400 in the all-around, posting 9.8 or better on all four events, including a title-winning 9.9 on vault. It was her second straight vault crown, both coming with 9.9s or better. Her all-around score was good enough to take the meet title, just besting teammate Krystle Cook, who took second with a 39.175. Prior to the meet, Rymer had one career title. She tripled that total Saturday.
?Rymer was phenomenal, just phenomenal,? Mitchell said. ?I mean, Krystle was excellent, scoring what she did, but when someone goes in and puts up a 39.4, they just outshine everyone.?
Kentucky tweaked its lineup on every event from previous meets and the results clearly payed off, having just two falls in the entire meet and being forced to count neither. The Wildcats opened the meet on bars and started with a season-high 48.925. Cook paced the squad with a title-winning 9.95, including a perfect 10 score from one judge. Fellow senior Lucy Burgin was second on the squad with a 9.825 while Rymer got her spectacular meet underway with a 9.8.
From there it was on to beam, where UK had faltered last week, suffering three falls. However, this week Kentucky stepped up with the fourth best beam score in school annals, a 49.000. Not surprisingly it was sophomore Heather Hite leading the way. She tallied a career best 9.95 to lead UK for the fifth straight meet on the event and win her fourth title of the season. Rymer was right behind with a career best 9.875.
?It was great to go 49 on beam,? Mitchell said, who has coached UK to three of its five 49 scores on the apparatus. ?We changed our line up around so we put the gymnasts who we knew would hit up front and build confidence and on our scores from there. By the time we had a fall, we already had five great scores.?
Rolling along, Kentucky cracked the 49 plateau on floor for the second straight week with a 49.100. Freshman Hillary Ferguson continued her torrid stretch of floor routines, winning the meet title with a career-high 9.925. The Richmond, Ky., native has now posted a 9.85 or better in five straight meets on the floor. Hite just missed matching Ferguson, posting her second straight 9.9 in the event to finish second.
With a stellar score in sight, UK headed to vault for the final rotation. Freshman Emily Green led off with a career best 9.875 to get the ball rolling and the Wildcats knocked out the second best vault score in the Mitchell era with a 49.175. The best score under Mitchell came last week.
Rymer followed Green with her title-winning 9.925 and Hite and Cook followed with a 9.8 and 9.85, respectively, to all but assure the Wildcats the coveted 196 score.
?I?m so proud of this team tonight,? Mitchell said. ?They really stepped up tonight and had a great meet. We?re looking forward to building off this and doing it again next week. I told the team, we put ourselves in a bit of a valley early in the season, but its not too late to dig ourselves out and we started that process tonight.?
Kentucky returns to action on Friday when it travels to Arizona for another quad meet, this time featuring the Wildcats, Penn State and Texas Women?s.
