Wolfpack Defeat Cougars In Season Debut

RALEIGH, NC – In their first meet of the 2012 season, BYU women’s gymnastics fell to an impressive North Carolina State team, 194.050-190.875. Despite falling short, the Cougar sophomores had a strong showing as Draper, Utah native Megan Bain led BYU on each of the three events she competed in. Bain’s fellow second-year competitors, Raquel Willman and KayCee Gassaway also turned in solid scores for the Cougars.

"I think we'll come along as the season progresses," BYU head coach Brad Cattermole said following the meet. "We had some strong performances tonight but there are some things we need to fix. The good news is that this is not like football where one loss kills you. We'll fix things in practice this week and look forward to the meet next week." 

The first rotation of the season did not bode well for BYU as only two gymnasts scored over 9.700 on the uneven bars. Gassaway got the meet off to a solid start scoring a 9.700 but only senior Natalie Pickard would surpass that score with a 9.750 for the Cougars. Meanwhile, NC State thrived on vault scoring a team-high 48.825 on the night. Unfortunately, BYU was unable to overcome the deficit the remainder of the evening.

On vault, the Cougars were able to cut into the Wolfpack lead as they posted four scores of 9.725 or higher and recorded a team-high of 48.675. Sophomore duo Bain and Willman led BYU on the event with scores of 9.800 and 9.775, respectively.

Floor exercise, which has proved to be a hit-or-miss event for the Cougars in recent years, did not generate the scores the BYU coaching staff would have liked. Only Bain scored higher than a 9.600. Senior Jennifer Lezeu was able to bounce back after struggling on the first two events, to turn in a score of 9.600 for the Cougars.

Willman started the beam rotation well for BYU with a 9.700. Bain continued to be the model of consistency for the Cougars on the night scoring a 9.750 on beam to give BYU their highest score on the event.

The Cougars will next travel to Cedar City, Utah to take on the Thunderbirds of Southern Utah at 7 p.m. MST on January 20^th.