Senior Shannon Bowles took home wins in the floor, beam, bars and the all-around, but a pair of falls stole the spotlight in the No. 5 Utah gymnastics team’s 196.200 to 193.800 victory over No. 18 Ohio State Friday night.
Bowles beat fellow Ute Deidra Graham 39.450 to 39.150 in the all-around, but injuries to former NCAA all-around champion Theresa Kulikowski and senior All-American Kylee Wagner cast a dark shadow over the evening.
Kulio, who experienced some swelling the day after competition, is listed as day to-day. Wagner suffered between a level 2 and level 3 sprain, and is out for four weeks.
Utah opened Friday’s meet at the Huntsman Center with a 48.775 to 48.025 lead after its vault and OSU’s bars. Utah went on to bars.
Kulio, the last competitor in the event, bruised her knee in a nasty, head-over-heels spill on an exchange from the high bar to the low bar.
“On my Jaeger [release], I was too far away. When I reached, I got one hand on [the bar], but the other peeled off,” Kulikowski said. “I knew it wasn’t anything major?I didn’t hear anything [pop].”
Still, Kulio limped to the locker room to be evaluated, and Utah advanced to bars in command by a 97.925 to 96.725 score.
“I just assumed that we would not put her back in the lineup,” said coach Greg Marsden. “But she walked out, and said she was fine and wanted to do [beam].”
In a gutsy performance, Kulio returned to the floor and turned in the second-highest score (9.900) in the event.
“There’s one part where I go down on that knee, and that kind of hurt, but once you get into competition, you don’t really feel physical things,” she said.
The injury to Wagner, who was filling in for Kulikowski on the floor, was more serious. Kulio was slated to go on floor for the first time since tearing an ACL in 2000, but she didn’t feel it.
“I felt fine on beam, but when I started to tumble, it hurt,” Kulikowski said.
Enter Wagner, who had scored a 9.700 on vault and a 9.775 on beam. Wagner went into her tumbling pass, but fell to the floor, grasping her ankle.
“After her front one-and-a half, she punches right into something, and something went when she punched,” Marsden said. “She’s done that move her whole career, so that was unusual.”
Meanwhile, Bowles had quietly controlled all four of her events. She won the beam (9.950), floor (9.875) and all around (39.450) outright, and she tied for the win on bars (9.900). Bowles already has four wins this year, whereas she had a total of 14 a year ago.
“I didn’t really think about it until floor [their last event] was over. I was focusing on each event,” Bowles said.
Sophomore Veronique LeClerc tied Bowles for the bars title, while adding scores of 9.825 and 9.775 in the vault and floors, respectively.
Graham recovered from a 9.625 on vault to record a 9.875 on bars and a 9.850 on beam and floor. It was the first beam routine she’d hit in the first meet of the year in her four-year career.
Freshman Annabeth Eberle showed some nerves in competing in her first collegiate meet. Eberle struggled through an exhibition bars set and scored a 9.325 on her beam routine after a fall. But Eberle settled in after that, tying for second place (9.850) on floor with OSU’s Amanda Allen.
“Hopefully, people saw the potential with her tonight, and hopefully, they saw the potential of this team,” Marsden said.
If only the Utes can stay healthy.