BYU at Utah 3/23/02

by Reener

There was a lot of energy in the building, as the Utes drew its biggest crowd in recent memory. The Utes warmed up pretty well and ready themselves for senior night huppla. The seniors were each presented by her parents. Video highlights of each played on the jumboscreen while the announcer recited a summary of each career. This really is a very special group. (And thanks to the gym gods that arranged for Kulio and Wagner to spend one more year with us. It would be too big a loss otherwise).

Round 1 - Utah on vault, BYU on bars

In the past, vault has been a weakness, but this year the Utes have risen to the occasion. They are still giving little tenths away on the landings, though, so there's room for improvement.

Tanner - nice front pike (remember when she used to do just a font tuck?) She had a slight rebound on her landing, but nearly stuck this. 9.8/9.85/9.825

Graham - Front pike ½ with a little backward rebound/hop.

Vituj - ½ ½ front layout with a tiny, tiny hop. 9.9/9.9/9.9

LeClerc - front pike ½ with a little rebound. 9.85/9.9/9.875

Eberle - Hristakaeva with a little hop forward and a little form in the air maybe. 9.85/9.9/9.875

Kulio - Yur. Back layout full, near perfect with a great stick. 9.95/9.95/9.95

Bowles - exhibition. She warms up this vault better than she competes it for some reason. Front pike with a ½.. Lands with her chest down and that forces a directional step to keep balance. 9.775

Allan - exhibition. Her Y. ½ front layout is really coming along. She's got the stick, but landed in a deep squat. 9.9/9.8/9.85

Over on bars, BYU didn't look good in warmups, so it's not surprising that they had a rough set. Brook Craig was apparently injured in warmups (I didn't see what happened), so they scratched her and only put up 5 on bars.

Mabray - started out with little form breaks (leg separations) throughout. She arched backwards out of a handstand on high bar and was forced to take extra swings to regroup. I think the judges posted a 9.4/9.6 for 9.5.

Dye - also arched over on a high bar handstand, but hung on to it til she got to a handstand on bars and arched backwards and had to do some awkward recovery maneuvers. She really never looked to be in control of this routine. 9.425

Lopez - got the team back on track with a solid routine with no major flaws. She could really tighten up her presentation to boost the score; she looked a little loose, but really made no major errors 9.85

Lines - little bit of form and bounced out of her landing. I didn't notice what SV the judges put up for her. 9.6/9.6/9.6

Evanson - as far as form and presentation, she is heads and shoulders above her teammates. Her routine is difficult, interesting and well done. She has added and ½ to her front double tuck off. She didn't stick it, but she deserves credit for continuing to add difficulty and interesting skills.

Round 2 Utah on bars / BYU on vault

Vituj - looked fabulous in warmups. She competes her handstands just a little off of straight vertical. One of her HS positions looked short enough to warrant a .1 deduction, the others were probably within acceptable range. Great stick on the landing. 9.9/9.8/9.85

Eberle - started out looking tenative. Caught her full hop, but it looked a tiny bit off as she went into her Tkachev, where she fell. She got back up, looking relaxed and solid to complete the routine with a nice stick. 9.2

LeClerc - this was a really nice routine - one of the best we've seen from her this season. She had only a tiny rebound on her landing. 9.95/9.95/9.95

Bowles - looking absolutely great throughout this routine except the step back on the landing. If she could resolve that, she'd be pulling great scores at nationals. She was rewarded with a 9.95, which is an indication that the judges were more forgiving of that step back on this night. She usually gets about a .1 deduction for that mistake.

Graham - in my opinion, this was the most fluid routine of the night. No hestiation, no distracting movements or breaks. She stuck the landing but had to reel her arms just a bit to fight for it. Good for her! 9.95/9.95/9.95

Kulio - I wonder if the judges were just looking for an excuse to throw a 10 out there for her. She didn't give them the chance because she moved one foot for a tiny step on the landing. Otherwise, vintage Kulio - nice job 9.95/9.95/9.95

Allan - exhibition. This routine indicates that she's been working hard in the gym to resolve her form issues. She did a great job and ended with a nice stick for a 9.9/9.95/9.925

Over on vault, Dye started off with a stuck front tuck. She did one of those hurry-and-salute-cuz-momentum- will-drag-you-off-your-stick kind of sticks. 9.7/9.7/9.7

Lopez - apparently going for a front pike, but had really bent knees. 9.75/9.8/9.775

Shupe - going for a front pike, but sat the landing. 9.25

Mabray - ½ on ½ off front tuck, little sloppy looking with just a tiny hop. 9.775

Hickman - Y. full layout with bent knees and a hop 9.875

Evanson - Y.full layout with a little step. 9.9

Johnson - exhibition- front tuck, almost sat it.

Round 3 Utah on beam / BYU on floor

Whew, Eberle in the first spot. (This is probably a good move because she seems to be influenced by any falls or wobbles competed ahead of her). Again, she looked nervous to start, but you could see her relax as she got into the routine, which includes an authoritative punch front/changement, a wolf/straddle and roundoff double tuck off (small step forward). 9.85

Allan - she had a noticable check on her 3/4 jump and was off center on her Chen, which broke the flow of the routine. On the other hand, she threw a perfect roundout 2-foot layout that uses every last centimeter of the beam. 9.825

Graham - beautiful routine. She landed at one time with one foot somewhat off the beam, but she didn't so much as waiver to keep her balance. Other than that, I didn't see anything requiring a deduction.  One judge threw a 10 (the one that couldn't see the foot thing) and the other threw a 9.85. What else did she see? Anyway, 9.925

Vituj - just a beautiful routine with just a tiny bit of a check on her scissor full. The background music playing was "I'm a Believer" by the Moneys. I could hear a growing murmer in the crowd, then it became clear that everyone was singing with the music. That was fun. 9.95/9.95/9.95

Bowles - just a beautiful job. There were no deductions that I could see. 9.95/9.5/9.5

Kulio - again, just didn't want to give those judges a chance to give her a 10 - she checked her series slightly. Otherwise, great routine. 9.95/9.95/9.95

BYU on fx

Hickman - a little sloppy on her opening double pike, but otherwise a pretty nice, but not spectacular, routine.

Cosgrave looked like she had a nice routine going, but it was cut short on her cat double when she went down with an ankle injury. This is really too bad for this team. They really rely on her to put up solid fx scores meet in and meet out. She may be lost for the season.

Dye - she is finally meeting her potential on this event. She really is one of the BYU girls that I would expect to lead this team. Very nice execution and dance. 9.9/9.9/9.9

Mabray - I was a little distracted and didn't see some of this routine (I was waiting for Graham's beam scores to come up). My impression was that she was somewhat sloppy on some landings, but overall has nice dance. 9.9/9.8/9.85

Lopez - again, she put together a solid routine, very nice overall. Her choreo. is much improved from her freshman/soph. years. Even though she gives a clean performance with few deductions, I always get the impression that she's capable of throwing some much more spectacular routine if she could find the right choreography. She also relies heavily on front tumbling, which never seems to come across as hard as it probably is.

Evanson - nice double full, nice double pike, nice front tumbling to end, nice dance and presentation throughout. 9.9/9.95/9.925

Round 4 Utah on fx/ BYU on beam

Utah went with an unusual lineup so that the seniors could go up last.

Eberle - she has really developed beautiful execution and expression for this routine. She did rebound a bit on her first pass and her front foot slipped a bit on her second pass. The judges were forgiving of these two little errors, maybe because her overall presentation was soooo big! 9.9/9.9/9.9

Vituj - perfect triple to open and she has resolved her landing problems on the second pass. This was the fx of the evening, in my opinion. I can't point out the deductions. 9.9/9.95/9.925

Kulio - This was a wonderful routine that gave very little away. Some of her landings on passes looked like they COULD go out of control, but she willed herself to stick them. 9.95/9.95/9.95

Tanner - she really did a nice routine with just a little bit off of rotation on her cat/wolf turn combo. 9.9/9.9/9.9

Bowles - this was gorgeous up to her wolf/popa combo where the rotation didn't quite work. At first I was afraid she'd turned an ankle, but she went right on. The news article indicates she stubbed her toe and it threw her off a bit. Otherwise, this was just a great finish for her (sob, is it really over?) 9.95/9.9/9.925

Graham - lots of sting mats down for her, but you wouldn't know that she was performing through back pain. What a tough little cookie! She looked a little hurried in the beginning, but she wasn't giving anything away. Congrats to her and I hope she knocks 'em dead at nationals. (I have a feeling Diedra will be knocking 'em dead throughout her life. She always leaves me with the impression of a person who will be in the trenches doing great and important things in life.)

Over on beam, Pauga started off a little tentatively, but this was a fairly decent routine with a punch front/wolf on. Switch 1/4 turn/double stag (facing sidewise). Unfortunately, she fell on her side somi, but as side somi's go, she does a nice one. 9.25

Lopez - she took some extra steps here and there to catch her balance and had a check on her switch full 9.75

Dye - really nice routine with a really nice stick. This is the routine she should have been doing all year, cuz she really is a good beamer. One judge threw a 10 and the other a 9.95 for a 9.975

Mabray - she took two spills off beam in touch warmups. In competition she does a nice full twisting back HS/LO combo, an Onodi and a front full of the end. Unfortunately, she fell on her punch front. 9.1

Lines - had a nice routine going, but lost balanced and grabbed the beam on her punch front. This score was probably pretty lenient, given that mistake. 9.625

Evanson - she had one check on her tuck jump full, but otherwise nice. 9.95/9.95/9.95

All in all, the scoring was a bit lenient, as it is everywhere on senior night. Even so, Utah finally put together a complete meet and showed the depth of talent of each six person lineup. Hope they stay healthy for regionals and nationals. I'd love the rest of the nation to see them at their best.