No. 21 Arizona gymnastics ended its season with a sixth-place finish at the Baton Rouge Regional on Saturday.
Arizona tallied a score of 194.825 in Baton Rouge, La., at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, which did not qualify it for the NCAA Championships.
“We are still recovering,” head coach Bill Ryden said. “It was a little bit of a letdown, but I guess that is why they call it sport.”
Starting with their first rotation, the Gymcats earned a total score of 49.050 on floor. Leading them was junior Kristin Klarenbach who earned a 9.900 on floor, making it the ninth time this season she has earned that score or above. Junior Allison Flores added a 9.850 and freshman Mackenzie Valentin tallied a 9.825.
Moving on to vault, sophomore Shelby Edwards earned a score of 9.925. Valentin scored a 9.850 and Flores scored a 9.800. Finishing off the rotation, junior Amber Wobma and freshman Gabby Laub added scores of 9.775 and 9.750, respectively.
“I thought we went through the meet with nothing to lose and we might as well lay it all out on the line and we definitely did that for both floor and vault,” Klarenbach said.
From that point forward, it was all downhill for the Gymcats. On bars, freshman Krysten Howard and Laub both counted falls to open up the rotation.
“When the first three routines missed, it is the first for the two freshmen who lead off our bars,” Ryden said. “Even though they are freshmen, they have had really outstanding seasons. I would never have guessed that they would come off the bar; it was very much a shocker.”
Freshman Selynna Felix-Terrazas led the bars’ rotation with a score of 9.850 and Edwards added a 9.725. Flores concluded the rotation with a 9.825.
“We finished up solid,” Ryden said. “What happens when you have so many problems on an event, it takes a lot for those later competitors to not become overly conservative.”
In the Gymcats’ last rotation, Wobma opened up the balance beam with a 9.750, and Flores followed with a 9.725. Sophomore Jessie Sisler added a score of 9.850, and Edwards matched it.
Sophomore Lexi Mills and senior Shana Sangston earned scores of 9.825 and 9.750, respectively.
“I will give real credit to the beam team,” Ryden said. “In a meet like this when you have those kind of errors, you know what it means and that you are not going to advance. But the beam team did not give up and all six of the girls stayed on and fought hard.”
LSU, the regional host, earned first place for the meet with a score of 198.325, which is tied for the nation’s highest score this season. Stanford took second place with a score of 197.275.
“The big thing that hurt us was obviously the three bar errors that pretty much sank our ship, and figuring out what why those happened,” Ryden said.
—Follow Matt Wall @mwall20
