It wasn't pretty, but the #12 Boise State gymnastics team got the job done. The Broncos overcame three disastrous mistakes, pulling through with a solid vault routine to eek out a win over host San Jose State by 375/1000th's of a point tonight in a quadrangular meet.
Boise State survived scores of 9.325, 9.3 and 9.225 to somehow emerge victorious over a determined San Jose State team. The Broncos may have left town with a "W", but it was San Jose State that gained loads of confidence for coming so close to the #12 team in the nation. And the Boise State team better get used to the venue and the fans, for the upcoming WAC Championships are in the exact same building they performed in tonight.
Boise State recorded solid scores in the vault (49.250), floor (49.175) and bars (49.175) to get the win over San Jose State, UC Davis and Seattle Pacific. Coach Tina Bird and Neil Resnick's team needed every bit of that vault score which was achieved in their final rotation. The Broncos and Spartans were tied after three rotations and the outcome was very much in doubt.
Hailey Gaspar was one of the heroes tonight for the Lady Broncos. For the second time in her career, she earned a 9.95 score on vault, which is tied for fifth best in school history. To illustrate how important her great vault was, if the score had come up 9.5, the Broncos would have lost tonight. She also rang up a 9.875 in the floor exercises (second on the Bronco team) and a 9.725 on the beam. So major kudos to Hailey for helping pull out the win!
Amy Glass was her usual solid self, although she did finish second to San Jose's Thomasina Wallace in the all-around. Wallace was brilliant with a 39.325 to 39.250 for Glass. Kelsey Black was another star for Boise State. Black performed on three apparatuses, scoring 9.850 on floor, 9.8 on bars and 9.750 on vault. Hannah Redmon was also great with a 9.9 on floor, a 9.875 on vault and a 9.850 on bars. Redmon had the highest Bronco score on floor and the second-highest on both vault and bars.
Redmon is one of the great talents in school history. It's too bad she didn't also compete on the beam because the Broncos could have used her ability. Two of the poor performances tonight came on beam--if Redmon can beat 9.3 on beam, the Broncos could have used her.
When it's all said and done, Boise State's score of 195.925 is still a very good road score, even though it did give the Spartan women optimism heading into the WAC Championships. Better to put a team away and not give them any hope, but you live and learn and compete another day. Boise State came into tonight's meet averaging 195.038 so they at least should maintain their current ranking. I'll try to track the other Top 15 scores this weekend and give an estimate how the averages change for each. Next week, I believe the rankings are changed to reflect the RQS (Regional Qualifying Score), and that is done quite differently.
Next week, it's off to another WAC contender in Utah State and a meet with the Aggie women next Friday. Hopefully March 19 when the Broncos return to San Jose, they'll be at the top of their game.
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