The Arizona gymnastics team was unable to defeat the No. 4 UCLA Bruins on Saturday, Jan. 20 in McKale Center, 197.300 to 195.750, but reached their individual and team goals.
“Overall pretty positive night for the Wildcats,” Arizona head coach John Court said. “We had a alot of good performances and certainly a handful of mistakes.”
The GymCats opened up the meet with sophomore Maddi Leydin who came running full force at tying her season high with a 9.750. UCLA gripped up on the uneven bars and scored high with Katelyn Ohashi earning a solid 9.900 followed by Kyla Ross earning a 9.925. Arizona’s junior Lauryn Mattson and freshman Peyton Bellows tried to help the Wildcats work their way up by both scoring 9.800, but it wasn’t enough for the ‘Cats as they went into the second rotation behind the Bruins, 49.250 to 48.750.
It was nothing by high scores across the board for the GymCats on the uneven bars. Leydin earned a new career and season high earning solid 9.800, followed by Haylie Hendrickson earning a 9.825, Madison Cindric with a 9.875 and Christina Berg with a 9.825.
“After vault we brought it together and bars we rocked it and floor was amazing too,” Cindric said.
But the Wildcats were unable to keep the high scores rolling into the third rotation on the balance beam. Stability was missing from the ‘Cats, but Cindric performed a solid routine earning a 9.875. Leydin earned yet another career and season high of a 9.825. The Wildcats were unable to catch up to the Bruins throughout the meet, but still made strides to score high.
The Bruins dominated through the third rotation on floor with two 9.900 by Pauline Tratz and Felicia Hano and didn’t look back. Going into the final rotation on floor, Leydin was able to come out and score a new season high and tie her career high of a 9.825. Senior Kennady Schneider brought the heat to close out the meet earning a high of 9.900.
“It was my first time doing All-Around in college and I was pretty happy with how it went,” Leydin said. “Our team did a good job, but had a little trouble on beam but we continued to build off each other.”
The Wildcats will be back at McKale Center on Friday, Jan. 26 at 6 p.m. to take on Utah.
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