BOISE -- Brigham Young led the early session briefly but wound up placing last in the afternoon group on Thursday at the NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships at Boise State University.
But coach Brad Cattermole -- whose team went through the agony last year of missing the postseason altogether because of five season-ending injuries -- really had no complaints about this team that took 11th place overall out of 12 teams in the 2000 championships."I don't think there was a whole lot left to give," Cattermole said. "This group really got out there and fought -- in general, they just fought until the end.
"Nobody gave up, and nobody's head came off in the middle of the game," Cattermole said in his unique manner, meaning that the two falls the Cougars suffered didn't rattle anyone. And they didn't count in the scoring, either.
"We didn't have the meet of our lives, which is what we probably what it would have taken to move on," he said.
The top three finishers from Thursday's afternoon session -- Georgia, Utah and Alabama -- move to tonight's Super Six national championship finals at the BSU Pavilion at 7.
There they will meet UCLA, Nebraska and Michigan, who advanced out of Thursday's evening competition.
"It would have taken a super-extraordinary meet on our part," Cattermole said. The Georgia-Utah-Alabama troika has, after all, won 18 national titles between them, and Louisiana State and Oregon State, the other teams in the early session, have finished in the top 10 several times.
"All in all, I was real proud of the kids and the attitude they had and how hard they worked," said Cattermole.
BYU led Oregon State after they had completed two events while other teams had done only one, and the Cougars' 48.725 to open on floor exercise and a 48.875 on vault was decent for them in a low-scoring session.
Sophomore Kelly Parkinson scored 9.85 on floor and 9.8 on vault and finished tied for fifth in the early session among all-arounders with 39.10, the same as Alabama's Kirsten Steiner.
They were both just one place from making All-American in the all-around.
Senior Leah Niepraschk popped for 9.8 on bars following a fall by Denice Pauga to salvage a 48.575 score. A tumble on beam led to a 48.325 score.
No Cougar made Saturday night's individual event finals.
Cattermole looked at this competition as a stepping stone for a team with a lot of youngsters. "Our freshmen (Brooke Craig and Karen Nielsen) did a spectacular job in this meet and will only get better, so I'm encouraged going into next season," Cattermole said. "We'll keep building on what we did here."
"We had several stellar performances, and I was a lot happier than I was two years ago (when BYU was 12th)."