The Boise State gymnastics team’s biggest glitch Friday night in the Beauty and the Beast meet at Taco Bell Arena involved junior Kelsey Black’s music.
After two false starts on floor, co-coach Neil Resnick escorted Black off the mat. The crowd of 2,723 waited.
“That’s like icing the kicker,” Resnick said. “I walked over and said, ‘How fun is this, competing in front of all these people?’ ”
Black answered the challenge with a 9.9 to win the floor title in a dual with BYU. It was a career night for Black and an impressive early-season showing for the Broncos, who scored 196.325 and easily beat the Cougars (195.125).
The wrestling team, meanwhile, overcame an early hole caused by injuries to beat Cal State Bakersfield 23-15 in a Pac-12 dual.
The Beauty and the Beast is an annual event in which the gymnastics and wrestling teams compete in the same arena. The Broncos will host a second Beauty and the Beast on Feb. 10.
Junior gymnast Amanda Otuafi won vault with a 9.9, senior bars specialist Erin Wippermann posted a career-high 9.875 to share the bars title with sophomore Ciera Perkins, sophomore Caitlin Mann won beam with a 9.875 (and the all-around) and freshman Maddie Krentz delivered counting scores on all three of her events in her college debut.
The team score was a season best by 1.45 points and would have been BSU’s second-best score last season.
“What I love about this team is different kids are stepping up,” Resnick said. “If we can get them all going the right direction at the right time, we’re going to do some good stuff.”
Black starred Friday by matching career highs on the vault (9.85) and bars (9.825) before her impressive floor routine. She has scored at least 9.8 on seven of nine routines this season.
She’s a junior in eligibility, but she left high school midway through her senior year to join the Broncos in 2011 so she’s only 19 and less than two years removed from her class’ high school graduation.
“It all came together this year and it’s been great,” she said.
A couple also shined — one on each side of the arena.
Otuafi and junior 197-pound wrestler Cody Dixon are dating. Each posted a win.
“I saw that he won his match,” said Otuafi, who drew a 9.875 on floor after Dixon’s match ended. “It’s awesome being able to compete side by side with him.”
Dixon’s 12-4 defeat of Frankie Hurtado cemented the Broncos’ comeback win. They fell behind 12-0 as 133-pounder Brian Owen injury defaulted (knee, likely out at least a couple weeks) and 141-pounder Travis Himmelman lost. Himmelman replaced Josh Strait, who sustained a serious ankle injury in a wrestle-off in practice this week, coach Greg Randall said.
Jake Swartz, who is ranked No. 10 at 184, gave the Broncos a 16-15 lead with a major decision to set the stage for Dixon.
“That was pretty much the key right there, to put it over the edge,” Dixon said of his match. “Our heavyweight (J.T. Felix, who won) probably would have finished it off anyway, but it was a good match.”
Dixon won 12-4 despite a bloody lip that required a few minutes of treatment. He was coming off an upset of then-No. 5 Jake Meredith of Arizona State, who was unable to finish the match.
Dixon is now 10-14 on the season.
“Sometimes when you’re struggling and you don’t trust your conditioning and you have a good match, it can turn things around for you,” said Randall, whose team hosts Stanford at noon Sunday. [0x0b]
“It looks like Cody is starting to come around and he’s trusting his conditioning and his athletic ability. He’s looking good.”
Chadd Cripe: 377-6398, Twitter: @IDS_BroncoBeat
