LEXINGTON ? Coming off its two best scores of the season, 25th-ranked Kentucky looks to continue its momentum on Friday when it travels to No. 7 Nebraska for its regular-season finale.
Two weeks ago, UK posted the third best score in school history with a 196.200 and followed that with a solid 195.600 a week ago. Both scores came on the road as the Wildcats will be away from home for the fourth straight meet this weekend.
The back-to-back meet scores have propelled Kentucky back into the national rankings at No. 25. For the second straight week, UK is also ranked in all four events.
The main source of UK?s success has been on the vault and floor, where the Wildcats have been tearing it up recently. The Wildcats have posted the top three vault scores of the Mo Mitchell era and three of the top 10 in school history in the last three weeks. Last week, Kentucky bested both No. 14 Arizona and No. 16 Penn State on vault in the quad meet hosted by UA.
Senior Krystle Cook and freshman Emilie Rymer have led the charge as one of the two has taken home the meet title on vault each of the last three meets. The pair has posted UK?s top score in every meet except one, when senior Lucy Burgin scored a career-best 9.875 at Florida.
For Cook, the success has come from all angles as she has five titles in her last four meets, including winning the all-around against SEC foe Arkansas. She has also broken into the national rankings on bars, at No. 22.
On floor, UK has registered two of the best scores in school annals the past three meets with a 49.250 at Ohio State and 49.300 at Arizona. The Wildcats have been anchored by freshman Hillary Ferguson, who ranks 25th nationally on the event and has scored 9.825 or better in seven straight meets.
Meanwhile, Kentucky has gotten stellar performances out of Cook and Heather Hite, each of whom have broken 9.9 recently, including Hite?s 9.95 a week ago, the best floor score for a Wildcat since the Jenny Hansen ? who was recently named as the greatest gymnast in NCAA history ? donned the blue and white.
Hite also brings up Hansen references on beam, where she scored a 9.95 in winning the title at Texas Women?s University two weeks ago.
In the all-around, Rymer continues to impress as she?s strung together three straight meets of 39.200 or better. She boasts a season-high of 9.85 or better on all four events and set a career-high with a stellar 39.400 at TWU to win the meet.
Nebraska is squaring off with Southeastern Conference foe for the second time in as many weeks after falling to No. 6 LSU in Baton Rouge last Friday. This marks UK?s second trip to Lincoln in three years, dropping a 196.725-194.900 decision to the Cornhuskers in 2005.
