The TIme is Now for Bronco Gymnasts

Boise State's gymnastics team is loaded with seniors all set for their last few weeks in collegiate competition.

Tonight, the Broncos travel to Logan for a meet with Utah State. The competition is important for several reasons. First, Boise State wants to quickly put away the Aggies before another Western Athletic Conference team thinks they have a chance to upset Boise State at the upcoming conference championships. Last week, it took top-notch performances in the final few vaults for the Broncos to defeat San Jose State. Although the Spartans were defeated, they left the meet feeling upbeat that they could come so close to the 11th-ranked Broncos. When you are in fact #11 in the nation, best to give your opponents the feeling that they don't have a chance.

The second thing to look for is that the WAC Championships are indeed coming up. Boise State wants to continue to get better. They want to add more difficult elements in their routines but even more importantly, they want to execute flawlessly. Last week, Boise State had three performances of 9.3 or less and it almost cost them. The Broncos feature several excellent gymnasts; what they are looking for now is consistency throughout the lineup. The senior members on the team and those that are highly-ranked need to help the other members out for the good of the team. That is leadership and it is what the senior-laden Broncos need. So look for not just how the nationally-ranked Broncos perform tonight--look at the score for the lowest member of the team--that should be at least 9.5 in every event.

Yet another thing to watch is the Broncos' final team score. As I've pointed out on this blog, Boise State is part of a Regional that contains five of the nation's top 13 teams and only two of them will get to advance to the national championships. Of course, it is head-to-head competition in the Regionals that determines which two teams go. But gymnastics is very much a subjective sport, in which you live or die by what the judges think of you. Thus, if you are perceived as weaker than another team, it is tough to get the judges to give you a better score, no matter how good you perform on a given night. So it is important for Boise State to get themselves to a position where they are perceived as being the equals of their rivals in the Western Regional.

Stanford is the highest-ranked team in the West (#2 in the nation) with a 196.650 average score. Oregon State, a team the Broncos have to defeat in the Regionals, averages 195.896. Boise State's average is more than a half a point lower than Oregon State at 195.215. Boise State needs a team score of 198 to close within 3/10th's of a point. They need a 197 to close with half a point. It is important not only from a confidence level for the Bronco gymnasts to see themselves close to Oregon State but also for the judges to see that as well.

The Bronco-Aggie meet starts at 7 p.m. Mountain Time tonight.