Denver gymnastics advances to regional final after beating ASU, UCLA and Washington!

ASU upsets #9 UCLA.

I’ve been saying all season that wins and losses don’t matter. But now in the post-season, it’s all about the head-to-head competition. DU got the win when it counted! The top two teams in each regional semi-final advance to the gymnastics Sweet 16.

That said, today started looking like Denver wasn’t even in the competition. Denver was on vault in the first rotation, and competed in Olympic order. Although they were the top seeded team in this semi-final, Denver was fourth after the first rotation. A combination of tough judging and steps on landings put Denver’s team vault score tied with their lowest of the season. I didn’t see all of the deductions the judges took, but Denver also didn’t have any sticks. UCLA started on floor, which is their highest scoring event, and they came out of the first rotation in first place.  ASU had a strong start on beam, but not perfect, and honestly, I didn’t even bother watching the Huskies. After the first rotation Denver was in last place: Denver 49.025, UCLA 49.575, Arizona State 49.250, Washington 49.125.

Second rotation put Denver on bars. Again, they didn’t look like they were in this competition. Although DU had no misses, they didn’t have any great bars routines either. For their top event of the year, their 49.25 was disappointing. They recorded their 2^nd lowest bars score of the season. ASU started to pull away from Denver, but DU did manage to pass Washington: Denver 98.275, UCLA 98.725, Arizona State 98.625, Washington 97.975

Denver’s beam scores have been up and down all season, so there was no way of knowing how the third rotation would go. ASU headed to vault, which had been the lowest scoring event of the meet. UCLA headed to bars, and Washington was at the meet still too. In a post-meet interview, senior Jessica Hutchinson said the team put the first two rotations behind them and looked towards the second half of the meet: “Everybody kept their calm. No one was freaking out.” She told her teammates that they can’t change those low scores from vault and bars, so they needed to focus on beam and then floor. Although they were again not perfect, they had six hit routines and pulled within 0.1 of making it in the top 2 to advance: Denver 147.700, UCLA 147.800, Arizona State 147.825, Washington 147.500

Fourth rotation is when the party started. The Floor Party, that is. At home meets, the DU hype guys started calling it a Floor Party last year when the home crowd really got into the routines and hyped up the team to elevate their performances. It’s been that way at every home meet since, and the DU fans really shake Magness. Well, Denver brought that sense of Floor Party to Berkeley and turned it on. College Gym News live blogger, Brandis Heffner, reported, “Between the music and cheering fans and screaming teammates it’s SO loud in here. Great environment.” Finally we saw the scores we know this DU team can put up! Finally the team let go of the nerves and just performed! Denver tied UCLA’s floor score from the first rotation.

UCLA on the other hand let the pressure get to them on beam. They wobbled in almost every routine. ASU had a strong bars rotation, but weren’t quite able to overcome a fall to stay in the lead. They did, however, stay ahead of UCLA. After all of the scores were tallied, Denver came out on top, with ASU in second to advance to the regional finals.

Final: Denver 197.275, Arizona State 197.150, UCLA 197.050, Washington 196.650

Although Denver’s scores were not as high as we’re used to seeing, they finished the meet with zero misses. Their lowest score was 9.7. All three other teams had at least one fall. So DU can go back to the hotel with their heads high. Not only did they come out on top, they hit when it counted. Hopefully they can get some rest tomorrow and some more repetitions on the competition equipment in preparation for Sunday’s regional finals.

Denver competes next in Berkeley versus the top two teams in tonight’s semi-final in the regional finals on Sunday at 6PM Mountain. The top two teams from that meet will advance to the National semi-final competition on April 18.

LET’S GO DU!!!!