The Arizona gymnastics team fought hard but was unable to defeat the University of Denver in its last regular season meet.

The Gymcats placed second at the meet, topping the California Golden Bears by a score of 195.325 to 192.450. The Gymcats’ slow start made it impossible to catch Denver, who finished with a 195.400 score.

“”I am very proud with the way they competed,”” said head coach Bill Ryden. “”You got to be proud with the way the team fought back and wouldn’t give up. We barely let a victory slip through our fingers, but I love the way this team competes.””

The Gymcats struggled in the bar event, the first competition of the evening. The team was forced to count three scores that were 9.600 or less. They had one fall on bars, but were able to drop that score.

“”We definitely didn’t make it easy on ourselves in terms of having a fall on three events,”” said assistant coach Colleen Johnson.

After the first event, the Gymcats were in the third place and trailed Denver by 0.625.

“”We constantly got better, and we refused to give up,”” Ryden said. “”We started off on a little bit of a negative, but the thing about it was it was positive from there. The girls are not afraid to fight — the girls are not afraid to put it on the line.””

“”We were behind by five-tenths going into the last rotation and they had fire in their eyes and grit in their teeth.””

Senior Sarah Tomczyk proved to be another bright spot for the Gymcats, earning a 9.900 and first place during the floor event. Tomczyk has earned a 9.9 or better during the floor event three meets in a row.    

“”Sometimes it just takes a few a weeks to get back into the swing of things,”” Tomczyk said. “”Floor is one of those events that is one of those endurance things. I have hit other good scores during the season; otherwise I wouldn’t have a good average.

“”I feel great. I have always felt that floor has been my strongest event. That is how I made nationals last year.””

The Gymcats will be preparing for the Pacific 10 Conference Championships, which they will be hosting in McKale Center beginning Saturday.

“”I think sometimes we need to be confident when we start the meet,”” Tomczyk said. “”Sometimes we are a little tentative and hold back. Then at the end of the meet we are like, ‘OK, now let’s get aggressive.’

“”We need to have that aggression for the whole meet.””