The Arizona women’s gymnastics team will be holding their annual Pink Meet, in support of breast cancer, in McKale Center on Friday as they meet Pac-12 conference foe No. 15 California.
Last season’s meet between the two teams was decided by less than one point. The Golden Bears outlasted the Wildcats by .825 winning the meet 196.825 to 196.000.
Arizona will be coming into the meet with a 5-3 (0-2 Pac-12) record while California holds a 4-1 (2-1 Pac-12) record.
The GymCats have had multiple injuries throughout the season causing head coach Tabitha Yim to mix up her lineups, but this weekend fans will be happy to welcome back senior Selynna Felix-Terrazas who returns to the vault.
Felix-Terrazas has been out since the quad meet in Maryland causing her to be out of lineups for the past three meets.
“Selynna was working really hard to get healthy,” Yim said. “She has been going to re-habilitation about twice a day and she has come back pretty quickly, so she was able to get two solid weeks of training in and we feel like she’ll be ready.”
Junior Madison Cindric will still be out of line up due to a toe injury and freshman Maddi Leydin will be out due to a recent calf injury.
Arizona will be fighting an uphill battle on the balance beam after losing Cindric, who anchored the event. The GymCats scored a season high 48.975 on the balance beam against Iowa State on January 21st and freshman Courtney Cowels earned a career high of 9.800 at last weekend’s meet, but the Bears will bring put pressure on the Wildcats. They are currently ranked 14th on beam according to the NCAA Road to Nationals rankings with a team high of 49.175.
The Wildcats have been unbalanced on the beam in their past few meets, but Yim is confident in her lineup against California with junior Kennady Schneider and Cowels starting the rotation and ending strong with sophomore Skyler Sheppard.
“Kennady and Courtney have done a really good job of being consistent and starting off strong,” Yim said, “and you always like to end with someone who has the potential of getting a really high score and that is Skyler. She has a 9.925 at Stanford.”
California’s strongest rotation during the 2017 season has been the balance beam where they have dominated in four of their five meets. Senior Desiree Palomares has won each of her first three meets on beam this season, and has scored a 9.900 this season, tying her career-high.
The California Bears will be making their way to Arizona after their first loss of the season against Utah 196.450-195.725.
Last weekend the GymCats reached new heights as a team in vault earning a season high of 48.875 followed by season high on the uneven bars earning 49.275.
Sophomore Danielle Spencer earned a career-high of 9.875 on the uneven bars followed by junior Victoria Ortiz who her career high with a 9.900.
The Arizona gymnastics team only has two home meets left; Friday, Feb. 10 against California and Sunday, March 5 against rival Arizona State. Both meets will be televised on Pac-12 Networks.
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