Missouri gymnastics downs Ohio State in season opener
Ohio State opened the door for Missouri early, and the Tigers never looked back.
Published Jan. 9, 2010
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Junior Becky Scholle dismounts the beam Friday at the Hearnes Center. Scholle scored a 9.750 on the event as the Tigers won their first home meet of the regular season.
Early mistakes from visiting No. 18 Ohio State allowed No. 16 Missouri to take Friday’s season opener with ease, 194.725-190.650.
“I think we’re all really focused and we’re ready to set the pace for the rest of the year,” sophomore Mary Burke said.
After the first rotation, Missouri had a considerable edge over Ohio State due to Buckeye miscues on the uneven bars. A fall by Ohio State freshman Colleen Dean, an uncharacteristic botched landing by senior captain Hillary Dow and a slip from second team All-American junior Rebecca Best opened the door for a Missouri lead.
And the Tigers took full advantage.
Solid performances on vault from Missouri earned it more than a two-point advantage. The best of which came from reigning co-Big 12 Gymnast of the Year senior Sarah Shire (9.825) and Burke (9.800).
Despite the quick start, the Tigers did not get complacent.
“We just focus on our performances and even though we did have a lead, we were focusing on ourselves,” Burke said.
Senior Danielle Guider said the key was staying in the moment.
“You just have to go out there and do the best routine that you can do and hope that is going to help your team,” Guider said. “We try after each event to let that event go, move on and just focus on one event at a time and not get ahead of ourselves.”
Things worsened for the Buckeyes during their stint on vault. Dean appeared to injure her ankle during an awkward landing and had it wrapped after her vault. Dean finished the meet competing in the rest of the events and received a 37.600 in the all-around.
Missouri’s lead increased after the second rotation from solid performances on the uneven bars by Guider (9.725), sophomore Allie Heizelman (9.750), senior Becky Scholle (9.700) and Burke (9.825).
Guider made her presence felt in the all-around after returning from summer ankle surgery. Her consistent performances throughout the meet coupled with numerous Ohio State errors gave some breathing room for mistakes like Shire’s rare fall on the uneven bars. Guider finished with the third best overall all-around score of 38.575.
Guider said she was pleasantly surprised at her bars performance and pleased her efforts in summer for the event paid off.
“I was actually really excited for bars to be my high score event of the night, but I’m glad that I got to work hard all this summer and improve my bars to be in the lineup,” Guider said.
As the meet wore on, the Tigers’ lead got more pronounced. By the end of the third rotation, Ohio State’s deficit was more than three points, because it never was able to combine a string of good scores on any event and could never recover from its prior mistakes.
The Buckeyes’ two best gymnasts, Best and Dow, both of whom are rated by the Big Ten as “gymnasts to watch,” struggled during the entire meet. Best’s all-around score of 38.350 was only the fifth-highest of the meet and Dow’s all-around of 38.075 failed to make the top five.
Burke received top honors of the night by earning the highest single event score with a floor exercise mark of 9.875 and earning the highest in the all-around with 39.200.
Freshmen Lauren Swankoski (38.775), Guider (38.575) and Shire (38.500) followed Burke in the all-around rankings.
Next week, coach Rob Drass’ squad will prepare for the Lady-Luck Invitational in Las Vegas.
“The first meet is usually like a building point and hope to improve our score next weekend,” Guider said.