University of Washington
Stanford, Sacramento St., San Jose St.
No. 24 Gymdawgs Earns Two Victories In Quad Meet
February 07, 2010 | Gymnastics
Feb. 7, 2010
PALO ALTO, Calif. - The No. 24 Washington gymnastics team picked up its first two victories of the season and more importantly put together a solid score on the road, compiling a total of 194.075 against No. 8 Stanford, Sacramento State and San Jose State at Burnham Pavilion.
The Huskies put together their third-highest score in five meets this season and recovered from a poor performance in their first road meet of the season two weeks ago. With road scores counting heavily toward the all-important Regional Qualifying Score, the Huskies needed to bounce back from a season low 192.800 at No. 6 Oregon State.
The GymDawgs did just that and picked up two victories along the way to improve to 2-5 on the season. Stanford won the meet with 196.650 while the Huskies' score was enough to overcome third-place San Jose State (192.85) and Sacramento State (183.38).
UW finished second to Stanford on three of four events (vault, bars and beam), posting their best score of the day on floor (48.775). UW also had their second-best score of the year on vault, an event that has posed problems for the team all year.
Individually, Samantha Walior led UW on two of the four events, placing fourth on both beam and floor, scoring a 9.800 on beam and a 9.850 on floor, the latter of which tied a season high.
Kristen Linton, meanwhile, led the Huskies on bars, tying a season high with a 9.850 which tied for third overall. Linton also tied for third in the all-around with 38.925, just shy of her career high of 38.950.
Hatsune Akaogi's 9.800 on vault led the Dawgs and tied for the second-best vault of the day in addition to tying her career high.
The Huskies started the meet on bars and, after a slow start, their final four performers nailed their routines to give UW a solid score of 48.700. Freshman Phoebe Tham started the roll with a 9.700 and was followed by Akaogi, who hit her routine for a 9.800. The junior Linton followed with her 9.850 and fellow junior Walior wrapped up a strong first rotation for UW with a 9.775. UW trailed No. 8 Stanford by just 0.3 after the first rotation, 49.000-48.700.
The GymDawgs moved on to beam where freshman Paige Bixler started things off strong with a 9.60 before the Huskies ran into trouble, counting falls on their next two routines. Linton helped the Huskies climb back, however, setting a season high with a 9.750 and Haley Bogart followed with a 9.750 of her own to get UW back on track. Walior then helped the GymDawgs finish strong again with a 9.800. UW's score of 48.075 kept them in second place behind Stanford with a running score of 96.78.
UW went to the floor for their third rotation, their strongest of the four events this season and it showed. The first two Huskies started things off with season highs, with Karen Cain earning a 9.650 and Amanda Cline recording a 9.725, the latter of which was also a career high for the sophomore. Akaogi and Linton kept UW on a roll by putting up back-to-back scores of 9.800, which tied a career-high for Akaogi. After Bogart's 9.650, Walior once again saw that UW ended on a high note with a 9.825. UW's score of 48.775 was their third-best of the year on the event.
The Huskies finished up on their weakest event, the vault, but they made some big strides to put up a solid 48.525. Linton set a season high with a 9.550, Lauren Rogers scored a 9.725 and Akaogi tied a career high with a 9.800. Bogart and Cline helped the Huskies finish strong with scores of 9.775 and 9.675, respectively. Bogart's score was a season high and the Huskies' team score of 48.525 was their second-best of the season on their nemesis.
"We had a much better meet than our first road meet at Oregon State. We had 11 hits at OSU and 17 today so obviously we saw much better improvement," Washington head coach Joanne Bowers said. "We still have a ways to go but I felt like it was a big improvement for us. Kristen Linton had a great night finishing third in the all-around and Sam did her regular thing on her three events. She steps up to the plate to compete every time. Lauren Rogers, who has a bruised heel, jumped in and helped us on vault which we desperately needed and Phoebe being just a freshman and having a great routine on bars helped us so those things are big. In terms of getting better competing on the road, we did that. It was the highest away score this year for us and if we keep improving like we did, we'll be where we need to be at the end of the season."
The Huskies return to Seattle next week for the first of three consecutive home meets when they host Pac-10 foe Arizona State on Saturday, Feb. 13 at 2 p.m. in Bank of America Arena.
