PROVO — Everything came down to the final gymnastics event when No. 26 BYU met No. 14 Arizona and No. 34 Southern Utah at the Marriott Center.
After three events, the Thunderbirds held a .725 lead over Arizona and an .85 lead over BYU as the three teams went into the final rotation in much different positions than most believed possible. But then it all fell apart for SUU and it all came together for BYU, leading to the Cougar victory on their home floor.
BYU finished with a season-high 195.675, outscoring both Arizona (195.3) and SUU (194.875).
Both BYU and SUU were happy with their scores, because depending on what the teams ahead of them accomplish in their meets this weekend, they could have helped themselves tremendously by raising their regional qualifying scores.
The first three events were all SUU as Melissa Johnson (9.675), Elise Wheeler (9.8), Shayla Garcia (9.8) and Katie Hicks (9.8) each scored career highs on the vault. Then they took to the bars with a new season high on the event as a team with a 49.15.
Kellie Dangerfield and Elise Wheeler recorded career-high 9.9s, with their scores also tying the school-record bars mark.
"I have to get pep talks every single time I do bars. It's a confidence issue. But I know if my team has my back, I know I can do it every single time," said Dangerfield.
Meanwhile, BYU was putting together a few of its own career highs with Dayna Smart's 9.9 on vault and Hayley Jensen's first vault of the year at 9.775. Alethea Boon knocked down a 9.875 on only her third bars routine as a Cougar, and Kylee Draper also swung to a career-high 9.875.
"I'm glad we did like we did on bars. I was very happy with the team. I thought they did a really good job tonight. We only had one fall tonight," said BYU coach Brad Cattermole, who noted that the fall didn't count.
SUU coach Scott Baumann was also pleased with his team, especially on those first three events.
"We can be very competitive with anybody. It was a dogfight out there. This will help us out quite a bit in our regional qualifying bid," said Baumann, though he noted that if the team had been able to hit beam in the fourth rotation that bid would have been even better.
While SUU was bombing on beam, falling three times and having to count two, Arizona and BYU both stepped up on their final events. BYU put together its highest event score of the season with a 49.45 on the floor, with season and career highs from five gymnasts.
Dayna Smart tumbled to a 9.975 on the final event, tying the second highest score in school history.
"I really wasn't expecting that high of a score just because they don't do that any more," said Smart of her near-perfect routine.
Lisa Willis scored the second highest floor routine of her career with a 9.925 without even watching.
"To be honest, I had my eyes closed for most of it, so it was a nice surprise," said Willis.
And Heidi Poulson, Kiki Berrett and Kylee Draper all had career-high 9.85s.
"It feels good to be back out there. It was fun," she said after competing on the floor for the first time since suffering an injury early in the season.
Smart won the vault with a 9.9 and the floor with her 9.975. Arizona's Karin Wurm took the bars with a 9.925. Arizona's Danielle Hicks took beam with a 9.9.
Wurm won the all-around with a 39.425. SUU's Leah Sakhitab took second with a 39.250, and Shayla Garcia snared third with a 38.950.
"We did great on three events," said Sakhitab, who is a senior with NCAA finals experience. "It's been up and down this year, but I had so much fun tonight."
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