The No. 15 Arizona gymnastics team will carry its momentum to Corvallis, Ore., tomorrow to compete in the Pacific 10 Conference Championships in the same gymnasium where the Gymcats beat Oregon State on Feb. 10.
All seven Pac-10 schools with gymnastics programs, five of them ranked in the top 25 in the nation, will compete in the meet in Gil Coliseum on Saturday. No. 9 ASU (6-5, 3-2), No. 10 Stanford (12-3, 5-1), No. 11 UCLA and host No. 17 Oregon State (16-7, 5-4) will join No. 35 Washington (6-16, 2-9) and California (7-11, 0-6) in the meet, which starts at 6 p.m.
The Wildcats (10-9, 4-3) are coming off one of their most impressive meets of the year Saturday at Texas Women’s where they set season-high scores on the balance beam, floor exercise and vault.
Arizona head coach Bill Ryden said it was good to see his gymnasts perform up to their standards after a successful but less-than-stellar win the week before.
After being plagued with nagging injuries all season, Ryden was looking forward to having a healthy squad heading into what he called an “”extremely competitive meet.””
“”We’ve been hit so hard with injuries all year, hopefully nothing goes too bizarre in training this week and we’ll have a full squad going into Saturday.””
The UCLA Bruins beat the Wildcats at last year’s Pac-10 Championships and look to repeat behind senior Kate Richardson, who ranks third in the nation in the all-around competition.
The Cardinal will be led by sophomores Liz Tricase, who ranks No. 1 on bars and sixth on vault, and sophomore Tabitha Yim, who is ranked in the top 25 in all four events.
The host Beavers are 5-4 in Pac-10 competition with three wins against Washington coming in multi-team meets. OSU freshman Jessica Kelly ranks 16th in the Pac-10 on the bars, one ahead of senior Britani Pittullo.
Arizona heads into the competition ranked No. 9 on bars, No. 13 on the floor, No. 17 on beam and No. 18 on vault. The Wildcats will practice on-site Friday to get accustomed to the lighting and equipment before Saturday’s meet.
Arizona junior Aubrey Taylor heads the Wildcats, as she has won three individual event titles in the last two weeks, along with sophomore Karin Wurm, the reigning Pac-10 Gymnast of the Week.
“”We know how good we are,”” Wurm said. “”Now we sort of proved it to ourselves. It helps to have that confidence heading into this week – we’re all ready.””
