When Ashley Kever stepped onto the floor exercise mat at the end of Friday night's BYU-at-Utah gymnastics meet, she knew exactly where things stood: She had to hit, and hit good for Utah to run its home-winning streak to 154 straight meets.
Most gymnasts say they have no idea of scores. Ute all-around winner Deidra Graham said, "I didn't even know we were behind (going into the last event). I had no idea."
But Kever did.
"I usually know where everything stands," said the Ute senior who has been limited by shoulder problems to two events for most of her career. Friday night in the Huntsman Center, she was Utah's final performer on both beam and floor, and she knew she had to hit both, but especially floor as the meet wound to a close.
"That's how I like it," Kever said about knowing. "That's what motivates me. If I can get that fire lit . . . "
Kever scored a career-best 9.925, and Utah made off with No. 154 in a row by the narrowest margin in the 20 years of The Streak, beating BYU 196.30-195.80 before 12,201 fans.
"Ashley was just spectacular," said Utah coach Greg Marsden, knowing the pressure she had on her two events as the Utes tried to come back after losing defending NCAA all-around and beam champion Theresa Kulikowski to a torn left ACL last week at LSU.
The Utes are without their two top all-arounders, probably for the season, since Shannon Bowles has a cracked neck vertebrae and hasn't competed. It also lost a freshman for the entire season to a pre-existing foot injury from last summer.
But this was the first full meet in which the Utes competed knowing Kulikowski was not there, and that left the job of top-kick open for people like Graham, who scored .3 better than her career high in the all-around, hitting 39.55, and for those like senior Denise Jones (39.45, tying her career best), Kever (9.875 beam, 9.925 floor) and junior Theresa Wolf, who totaled 38.75 despite missing her Yaeger release and falling on bars. She'd have been at 39.25 or better with a normal bars score.
"We all knew we were going to have to step it up for this meet, and for the rest of the season," said Graham, who said her .3 improvement "is really a big thing for me, building some confidence."
"It was a real mental triumph for me," said Jones, relieved to finally hit beam after living with memories of her fall at the NCAA finals since last April. "I've never been completely relaxed in my routines," she said.
The team score was a season-high for BYU, which did not count a fall and totaled a whopping 49.325 on floor to seize the lead after three events, 146.975-146.775, as Utah finished beam with a 49.05. The Cougars tied the third-best floor score in BYU history, doing it on a foreign floor where Ute fans were growing more nervous with each Y. finish. And all four event team totals were BYU's best of the season.
Denice Pauga scored a career-high 9.9 on floor, followed by a 9.9 from Kim Little, a season high for her. Little finished third in the all-around at 39.15.
"It was pretty nerve-wracking," Little said of the meet on the Utes' floor, but she and her team kept their wits about them throughout, never counting a fall. Utah had to count a fall on bars.
Not that he'd want more falls on bars, but Marsden said later that this is the way all BYU-Utah athletic competitions should be — down to the wire. "This is great for both programs," he said.
"We were lucky to get out of this one — they did such a nice job," Marsden said about BYU.
It might have been the ultimate push had not BYU's Kelly Parkinson slipped on the floor at the end of her last tumbling pass on floor.
Y. coach Brad Cattermole said his team has had good mental focus its last several meets, but competing in front of so many fans at Utah is the ultimate test of a team's nerves. "You know what to expect up here. (You do) no fancy stuff and just fight it out. We kept together and didn't get caught up in the fanfare."
Cattermole has been yelling at his team in practice, trying to reproduce the tension of a meet at Utah. Friday's result came from that and a desire to get over what he called, "The embarrassment of last year (when what was probably BYU's best team had five season-ending injuries and missed the NCAA Championships) coupled with wanting to do better.
"It's a whole lot easier with a healthy group," he said.
Utah is just finding out about that.
"We all wanted to show we are a really good team (even without Kulikowski)," said Jones, "for her and for us. We have a lot of good players."
Jones scored 9.95 to win the floor competition and put Utah in position to come back and win. "It was the best I've done in my career," she said. It was big because it followed freshman Leah Sabo, who in the first competitive routine of her collegiate career sat down on floor on the last element of her last tumbling pass. That meant everyone else had to hit.
"Denise, finally, that's what she's capable of," Marsden said.
"This is a good first step after a tough week," he said.
The Utes have little time to think about it with a televised meet at Utah State Monday night. BYU is at Utah State on Feb. 11.