With two of its top vaulters out of the lineup and a couple of uncharacteristic wobbles from usually steady gymnasts, BYU's sixth- ranked women's gymnastics team dropped a 197-194.35 decision to fifth-ranked Michigan Saturday.
The score was the lowest for the Cougars since Feb. 10.A makeshift vault lineup that lacked freshman Denice Pauga (resting a sore foot) and sophomore Janene Christensen (tendinitis in the shoulder) scored a season-low 48.0. It was further hurt when a sore ankle forced freshman Leah Jacobs to scratch at the last minute and left BYU with only five vaulters. Falls on beam by top performers Kelli Rose and Angela Andersen dropped the Cougars to a 48.45 in that event. BYU had good performances on bars (48.925) and floor (48.975) to garner the respectable 194.35 score.
"This team really is phenomenal," said Cougar assistant coach Dawn Cattermole. "We were tired from after the Monday meet, had had our flight delayed and didn't get to bed until 2 a.m., come out flat and had a rather bad warm-up, and still had a lot of bright spots and scored a 194.35."
A bright spot included Jacobs coming back from her vault scratch to score a 9.775 on her first beam routine of the year. Elisabeth Crandall also scored 9.875 on bars, 9.9 on beam and 9.825 on floor along with Andersen's 9.9 on floor.
The Wolverines grabbed their highest score of the year in a meet where all four of their all-arounders scored better than 39 and Wendy Marshall hit a perfect 10 on floor. Andrea McDonald won the all-around title with a 39.525.
The Cougs' high all-arounder was senior Cristen Cosgrave, who rode four solid routines to a 38.925.
BYU wraps up the season with two home meets. The next one is on March 23 when the Cougs host Utah at the Marriott Center.