No. 21 BYU beats Utah State in home opener

PROVO, Utah - No. 21 BYU took down the Utah State Aggies (196.450) after posting a season high 196.775 at the Smith Fieldhouse Friday night.

MEET RESULTS

Sadie Miner-Van Tassel won the All-Around title with a 39.425, her highest All-Around score of her career. Elease Rollins took home the beam title with a 9.925 and Anyssa Alvarado finished first on the uneven bars with a 9.925.

“I am super happy with our performance tonight," head coach Guard Young said. "I’m especially thrilled with Abby Beeston’s performance. She's typically a bar specialist but she's worked her way into the floor lineup and looked great. We threw her in last minute on beam and she put on a gutsy performance that the team really needed.”

Haley Pitou started the Cougars off on the vault with a 9.825 followed by Elease Rollins and Allix Mason who both posted a 9.775. Lexi Griffith and Sydney Benson posted back-to-back 9.850s to put the Cougars to keep up the momentum. Miner-Van Tassel put up a 9.825 to give BYU a final score of 49.125 on the vault.

Miner-Van Tassel kicked things off for the Cougars on the uneven bars with a career high score of 9.875. Allix Mason and Lindsey Hunter followed that up with a pair of 9.750s. For the second week in a row, Pitou tied her career high with a 9.900 on the bars. Alvarado matched her career high with a 9.925 to pull the Cougars ahead of the Aggies with a total score of 98.325.

Lauren Ono gave the Cougars a strong start on the beam with a 9.825. Freshman Eliza Millar posted a 9.800 followed by a career high 9.900 from Miner-Van Tassel. Rollins matched her career high on beam posting a 9.925. Beeston posted a career high 9.825 to round out the rotation for the Cougars and improve their total score to 147.600 and give them a .425 lead over Utah State entering the final rotation.

Hunter opened for BYU on the floor and posted a 9.800 with Beeston carding a 9.825. Addy Rieder and Miner-Van Tassel put up consecutive 9.825s followed by Brittney Vitkauskas’ second straight 9.900 to finish the night for the Cougars and give them a final score of 196.775.

There were 1,952 fans that showed up for the 2022 Alumni meet where Young recognized the 2021 MRGC Championship team and presented conference championship rings.

“The crowd is definitely a competitive advantage because the girls really feed off of the energy,” Young said. “Especially after last year when we just had family here, so to have the fans back like we did is amazing and the momentum is only going to grow.”