BYU notches first win of the season

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – BYU women’s gymnastics set a season-high score of 195.575 in its first win of the season over the University of Alaska Anchorage Saturday night at the Alaska Airlines Center. 

"This was a good trip for us," BYU head coach Guard Young said. "UAA had a brand new facility to host a meet and we had a great LDS crowd come out and suppport our team, which made a huge difference."

The Cougars took the top spots on every individual event to edge out UAA 195.575 to 191.100. Brittni Wilde won the individual title on bars, while Mackenzie Douglas tied for second with UAA’s M’rcy Matsunami. Mikaela Jones and Douglas took first place on vault and Makenzie Johnson Halliday placed third. Douglas and Halliday also tied for first on floor, while Emily Vidmar, Jones and Halliday tied for first on beam.

BYU started off strong on the bars with a score of 48.950, its highest score on the event this season. Redshirt junior Wilde led the team with a career-high score of 9.875 followed by Douglas' career-high score of 9.800. Vidmar and Savanna Maradiaga both scored a 9.775, helping them reach a season and career high, respectively.

Jones and Douglas each scored a 9.825 on vault to start the second rotation. Halliday and Sin To posted a 9.800, while Cheyenne Hill notched a 9.675. With three falls from the Seawolves on the bars, BYU led 97.875 to 94.300.

On floor, Halliday and Douglas tied for first place with scores of 9.850, which also set a season high for Halliday and career high for Douglas. Vidmar and Natasha Trejo contributed two scores of 9.725 to help the Cougars finish on floor with a 48.825 to the Seawolves 48.075 on beam.

In a three-way tie, Jones, Vidmar and Halliday took first place on beam for BYU with scores of 9.850, which would also give Jones a new career high. To scored a 9.675 followed by Taylor Harward’s 9.625 to help the Cougars to a total of 48.850 in their final event.

BYU heads to Southern Utah next week to take on the Thunderbirds at the Centrum Arena for the last time on the road before they return home. The meet will begin at 7 p.m. MST on Friday, Feb. 12th.