Arizona Gymnastics placed sixth overall in the Pac-12 Championship on Saturday with a score of 195.925. The host team, Oregon State, placed first with 197.850, which resulted in its highest score of the season and now holds the top score record for its program.
Arizona needed to bring their peak performance from the previous week to have placed higher.
“This was a classic case of us not getting beat,” said Arizona Head Coach Bill Ryden. “We didn’t get beat. We lost it ourselves. We have no one to blame but us.”
The Wildcats started off their night on a low note, when the first two girls on floor went out of bounds for a tenth of a point reduction. Amber Wobma and Jessie Sisler followed with matching scores of 9.75. The improvement continued, as Kristin Klarenbach scored 9.825 and Aubree Cristello finished strong with 9.9, which earned her the event title. They managed a 48.800, which put them third overall in floor for their session.
The team came to life for their next event on vault, where they earned their second highest vault score of the season with 49.200. Danielle Buchanan and Klarenbach tied their career highs of 9.825 and 9.850. Then Shelby Edwards put up 9.850 and consistent Cristello matched her high floor score of 9.9, giving her another 1st place title.
Moving onto bars, the team was forced to count a fall. Danielle Buchanan and Lexi Mills were the first two of the lineup and had unexpected rough starts for the team.
“I would have never guessed we would have two girls in a row fall on bars. I was very shocked with that,” said Ryden. “That dug us a hole.”
After the dip in the score Arizona stepped it up, especially Edwards, who debuted on bars and scored 9.8. She started practicing on bars two weeks ago, due to an elbow injury earlier in the season.
“She’s just such an amazing athlete and such a great addition to the team,” Ryden said. “She really did a great job,” he added.
Cristello added a 9.775 and Allison Flores matched Edwards with 9.8. Jordan Williams, who fell last week, came back strong with a 9.850 posting, which saved the bar team.
The last event of the night for the UA was beam, where it posted 49.075. Wobma had her career-high on beam of 9.850 after a solid performance. Cristello matched Wobma’s score, and Williams and Edwards twinned scores of 9.8.
Cristello was ranked third going into the competition and proved her hype finishing 5th place in the all-around.
Despite earning a place the team knows they didn’t deserve, the new focus is on NCAA Regional Championships on April 6.
It’s Arizona’s 27th year going to the postseason and they finished 18th overall in final season rankings. Ryden said he thinks they will most likely be heading to Columbus, Ohio or Morgantown, West Virginia for the Regional Championship.
