Jan. 28, 2010
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The 12th-ranked University of Kentucky gymnastics team will compete in its first true Southeastern Conference road meet of the season when it travels to No. 10 Arkansas to take on the Razorbacks Friday, Jan. 29 at 8 p.m. EST.
Kentucky (3-2, 1-1 SEC) is coming off a 196.050-195.350 setback at home to No. 4 Florida on Jan. 15. The Cats tied their second-best floor exercise score in school history thanks in part to senior Emily Green’s career-best 9.950 mark. The team score matched an effort against Ball State on March 5, 2004. The school record is 49.450 set against George Washington on Jan. 30, 1988. The score topped Florida’s 49.075 mark, giving UK its lone event win on the night.
The Wildcats also set a season-high mark on the beam at 48.600, but fell short of Florida’s 48.750. Florida led the meet from start to finish, even though the Cats closed the margin with their showing on floor exercise.
Arkansas (1-2, 0-2 SEC) fell short to top-ranked Alabama 197.450-195.500 last week. The Razorbacks registered a season-high 195.925 score at Florida on Jan. 15. Kentucky’s season-high score of 195.525 came on the same day at the Lady Luck Invitational in Las Vegas.
“Arkansas is a good team and they will bring their best effort on Friday,” UK head coach Mo Mitchell said. “They get the most out of their athletes. We have got to expect to go in there and hit (on our events) because they will.”
Kentucky has rallied from slow starts each of the past two weeks only to fall short in losses to Missouri in Las Vegas and Florida in Lexington. The Wildcats came back from third place after two events in their quad meet in Las Vegas, beating SEC foe LSU and Arizona State only to stop just short of Missouri 195.625-195.525.
“We’ve got to start making sure we put all four events together on a regular basis,” Mitchell said. “We’ve got to raise our expectations so that’s what we expect to do each time out.
“Any time we can hang with a team on bars and beam, we feel like we have a chance of beating them because vault and floor are definitely our strong events.”
Sophomore Storey Morris leads Kentucky with three title honors this season, two first-place finishes on the beam and one on bars.
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