Boise State overcomes uncharacteristic start on beam to advance to regional final
The Boise State gymnastics team extended its season at least one more day with a second-place showing in the first session of the NCAA Corvallis Regional on Friday afternoon at Gill Coliseum.
Fifth-ranked Denver won the session with a score of 196.975, and No. 12 Boise State snagged the remaining qualifying spot with a 196.225 to advance to Saturday’s regional final. No. 18 Washington (195.900) and No. 24 Southern Utah (195.350) were eliminated.
“We’re ready to get back at it, because none of them are satisfied with how it went down,” Boise State co-head coach Tina Bird said. “We didn’t hit. We have room to improve (Saturday). We’re going to get out there and show everybody what the Broncos are made of.”
Denver and Boise State will contend with the top two teams from Friday’s second session, which included No. 4 Florida, No. 15 Oregon State, No. 25 Stanford and Iowa, for one of two national bids up for grabs in Saturday’s 8 p.m. MT final.
“I feel like the nerves are out of the way and they’re going to have a little extra energy for each other,” Bird said. “If they’re feeling any fatigue, they’ll help each other through it. I feel like they’re going to leave it all out there tomorrow. They’re not going to hold anything back. They’re going to go for it.”
Boise State senior Sarah Means tied for the best score on vault in Friday’s first session with a 9.850. Means also took third in the all-around (39.400) behind Denver’s Lynnzee Brown and Maddie Karr, who each totaled 39.525s.
Sophomore Emily Muhlenhaupt led the Broncos on uneven parallel bars (9.900), senior Alex Esmerian was the Broncos’ best on balance beam (9.900), and junior Courtney McGregor and Means each earned 9.850s on floor exercise.
The Broncos were in third after the second rotation and led Washington for the last qualifying spot by only a tenth of a point going into the final rotation.
“We knew we had a very narrow lead going into that last rotation, and everybody just kind of relaxed,” Bird said. “They were like, ‘Oh, we’ve got this. This is our best event.’ There was no question we were going to step up and do this.”
Boise State started the competition on beam — typically one of its best events — but found itself in trouble immediately as sophomore Gabriela Bouza (9.650) had a major wobble and then junior Isabella Amado (9.175) fell. The Broncos were able to recover with strong performances from freshman Hope Masiado (9.750), McGregor (9.825), Means (9.875) and Esmerian (9.900).
“I was so proud of the rest of the beam team. There’s nothing like some extra pressure,” Bird said. “But they stepped up and they did their normal routines. I’m really proud of Hope, because she was last, and that’s an awful lot of pressure for a freshman. And she did a great job.”
