Cougars to Face Aggies and Wildcats Friday

PROVO -- After a successful start in Denver with a second place finish last weekend, the BYU women’s gymnastics team will travel to Logan, Utah to take on host team Utah State and No. 18 Arizona on Friday. The meet will begin at 7 p.m. in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.

“We need to make sure that we take care of the details Friday,” BYU head coach Brad Cattermole said Tuesday. “We’re trying to take care of the little stuff: stick dismounts, don’t go out of bounds, good handstands. Those things are looking pretty good so far and they will get better as the season goes on so that is our goal for now.”

BYU began their season on a very positive note, scoring a 193.225 to finish in second out of four teams in Denver on Saturday. Junior captain Natalie Eyre led the team posting the team’s two highest scores of the night with a 9.8 on vault and a 9.85 on bars. The Cougars rallied after a fall on bars early in the final rotation, to stick the following five routines in order to avoid counting a fall and to defeat then No. 16 Denver. The performance propelled BYU to a No. 26 ranking in the nation.

No. 18 Arizona started their season strong with a fourth place finish out of seven teams at the Pac-10 Preview. Recording a team score of 193.825 the Wildcats showed they are ready for the 2011 season. The meet in Logan will be one of three regular season meetings between the Cougars and Wildcats.

Utah State began their semester with a loss to No. 20 Southern Utah last Friday but showed that they are a much better team than they were one year ago by scoring a 192.800. Last season, the Aggies only eclipsed this score twice with their highest score coming against San Jose State where they posted a team season high of 193.725. Their season average team score was a 189.598. However, this is a new year and the Aggies showed promise against SUU.

“We’re very excited to take on both of these teams,” BYU assistant coach Dawn Cattermole said. “It seems that Utah State is really up and coming so we’re looking forward to the competition.”

The meet can be viewed online at www.utahstateaggies.com.