This just doesn't happen.
"I didn't believe it," said Utah State all-arounder Christy Denson, the sophomore who spent her formative years training at Bela Karolyi's gym in Houston. "During the meet, I was thinking, `It would be cool to win, but I don't really think I'll win,' " she said.She did.
Aided by falls on floor or beam by each of Utah's three all-arounders in Monday night's gymnastics meet in the Smith Spectrum, USU's Denson (38.925) took home a rare all-around win against the No. 2-ranked Utes, and junior team-mate Amber Jamison (38.825) placed second.
"I didn't know until they announced it," said Denson.
Though 2-1 Utah had falls for the second straight meet, the Utes did beat the Aggies, but few expected such a tight outcome - 194.95-193.40 - USU's best of 1998. "It was a bit closer than I expected," said Utah State coach Ray Corn. "We will take this to the bank and grow from it."
"We didn't get too far behind," said Denson. "At times, we even thought we had a chance, when they were on beam and we were on floor." Denson competed despite a hamstring problem that had made her doubtful for the meet. "It's disappointing to lose," said Denson, "but it's OK. We were so close, we came away happy about that."
USU (3-3) lost its No. 17 ranking and was unrated on the latest (Jan. 27) poll, but with 193.125 against BYU Friday and 193.40 Monday, its average will improve. "I'm pleased," said Corn. "We looked better. We negotiated more routines and didn't have to count a fall. We see (this season) a very refined Christy and Amber. They're the one-two punch we need."
Utah was fine until freshman Shannon Bowles, who won her all-around debut Jan. 23 at Michigan (39.25), took a tumble on one tumbling pass and put her hands to the mat to steady herself on another skill as Utah's final floor-worker. It set the tone for the final Ute event.
"We had a real nice meet up until, obviously, `The Pig,' " said U. coach Greg Marsden, referring to the balance beam. The NCAA's best beam team, Ute beamers fell three times at Michigan and twice more with a third major error (grabbing the beam to avoid a fall) in Logan to blow a potential mid- to high-195 score. That would have been the Utes' best in this season of a devalued scoring code.
"The mistakes that we made were because we weren't aggressive," Marsden said. "Obviously, we didn't get resolved (in practice) as much as I had hoped that we did this past week."
The Utes are minus two-time defending NCAA beam champ Summer Reid, out with a calf muscle that she tore for the second time Thursday in practice. The falls were by sophomore Denise Jones and junior Angie Leonard, and senior Traci Sommer, third in the '97 NCAA beam championships, bobbled enough to score only 9.675.
Sommer competed in three events, her first since Jan. 16, when she sprained her right knee on a bars dismount. "I just wanted to get back in the swing of things. I was a little nervous," Sommer said. "The falls were disappointing; the falls were not in an area where we should have had them."
Utah hosts BYU Friday night at the Huntsman Center, and USU travels to Minnesota for a Saturday evening meet.