Mollie Korth Earns All-America Honors as Kentucky Posts 196.0625 at NCAA Semifinals
ST. LOUIS – The last vault of the night won sophomore Mollie Korth All-America as the Kentucky gymnastics team posted a 196.0625 at its first NCAA Championship appearance. Korth finished tied for fourth on the vault with a 9.925, earning her first-team status.
“The way I’m seeing this, it’s just the beginning of our climb,” head coach Tim Garrison said. Sometimes you have to lose, and unfortunately we did that today. With that said, I’m incredibly impressed with how our team responded. At a meet like this where little mistakes make big differences and we made big mistakes on the first event. To have the team go and do what they did on the next three events was impressive to me and it told me a lot about their mettle.”
Korth, an all-around competitor for Kentucky, was a 2018 Regular Season All-America winner and also took home All-America at last year’s NCAA Championships, where she competed as an individual. Korth finished in fifth in the all-around with a 39.5. That score earned her second-team All-America.
‘All I told myself is “you got this,” Korth said about her All-America vault. “I had to be aggressive and confident and go out there and do it. I’m looking to keep it going next year with consistency in the gym. I know my team is always behind me.”
“Individually Mollie performed really well today,” Garrison added. “You look at every event and she did about as well as she was going to do at this point. I think she’ll be stronger next year. Where we are right now, she had an amazing day for herself and really helped her team as best she could.”
Kentucky’s team score of 196.0625 put UK in sixth in the night session. Oklahoma won the semifinal with a 198.050, and Florida and Utah advanced to the Super Six from UK’s session. UCLA, LSU and Nebraska advanced to the Super Six earlier in the day from the first session.
Senior Katie Carlisle, freshman Ella Warren and junior Katie Stuart started the Cats out with three-straight 9.8s. Sophomore Mollie Korth had the highest score for the Wildcats as the anchor at 9.875. Unfortunately, the Wildcats had to count a fall as Katrina Coca scored a 9.325 and junior Alex Hyland scored a 9.2625. The Wildcats scored a 48.6 on their first event.
Korth had the Wildcats highest score once again as UK posted a 48.9875. Korth scored a 9.8375. Sophomore Hailey Poland put up a 9.8125, while Stuart scored her second 9.8 of the meet. Junior Sidney Dukes put up a 9.775, while senior Cori Rechenmacher rounded out the scoring with a 9.7625.
UK had its second best event of the day on the floor with a 49.225. Korth and Warren each went 9.8625. Hyland followed with a 9.85, and Rechenmacher and Dukes rounded out the scoring with a 9.825s. Poland’s score was dropped after a 9.8125.
The Wildcats finished on a high note with a 49.250. Capped by Korth’s All-America vault of 9.925, junior Danaea Davis followed with a 9.8625 while Alaina Kwan had a 9.85. Dukes posted a 9.8125 while junior Aubree Rosa finished the scoring with a 9.8.
For complete news and updates on the Kentucky Gymnastics program, go to UKathletics.com. Season tickets can be found on UKathletics.com/Tickets. News and updates on the team can also be found on Twitter at @UKGymnastics and at @UKCoachGarrison and Facebook at Facebook.com/UKGymnastics.
