BYU Gymnastics Seeks Redemption on the Road

PROVO -- The No. 33 BYU Cougars will look to revenge two home losses earlier this season against in state rivals, No. 21 Southern Utah University and No. 9 University of Utah this week. BYU will travel to Cedar City to take the Thunderbirds Monday at 7 p.m. and will then face the Utah Utes in Salt Lake City at 7 p.m. Friday.

The Cougars are coming off a season-high (195.725) performance against Boise State and Arizona State on March 12th. For the first time this season, the BYU coaching staff felt that their team performed to its full potential.

“We hit according to our capabilities,” Cougar head coach Brad Cattermole said Friday. “We still have mistakes that we want to improve on but for me, that meet we did what good teams do. Everyone did their part in order to give us a good score.”

Still, BYU’s opponents in the coming week have also enjoyed success this season. SUU began their season with five wins before recently struggling against quality opponents. Most recently, the Thunderbirds finished third in a quad meet at the University of Utah despite posting a season high 196.025 on the night.

“We tend to do pretty well in Cedar City,” Cattermole said. “But we can really do well anywhere if we hit our routines. We haven’t been very successful on the road this season so we need to take our capabilities with us on this trip but I think competing against SUU is something we are comfortable with.”

BYU has only defeated Utah twice in the history of the program. However, BYU’s scores in Salt Lake City tend to be some of their best each season. Despite a tough meet against the Utes in 2009, the Cougars are optimistic that this success will return Friday.

“We always look forward to the Utah meets every year,” said Cattermole. “Our history at Utah has been good as far as scores go.”

The Utes are coming off their season-high (196.975) against three top 25 opponents in their last home meet.