At the start of the season, Georgia head coach Suzanne Yoculan mentioned how important the fourth, fifth and sixth gymnasts in each team’s lineup are going to be in 2008. Friday night, Utah head coach Greg Marsden confirmed it.
“The people early in the lineup have to set it up,” Marsden said. “You need a little help from your team to set (high scores) up.”
The Red Rocks aren’t just setting up Ashley Postell anymore, either. Kristina Baskett is starting to capitalize on Utah’s solid early scoring, as well, and it seems like all she needed was the opportunity to throw a few upgrades into her routines.
“Going into it, I felt really sure of myself, like for warmups, and I felt really confident,” Baskett said.
On Friday against Southern Utah and Utah State, Baskett inserted an extra half-twist into her vault and came within .025 of a perfect score.
“In my mind, Kristina did a great one-and-a-half and just dropped out of it and nailed it,” Marsden said. “(The judges) could have gone 10.0 on hers.”
Later on floor, Baskett again slipped an upgrade into her routine and managed to stay in bounds for the first time in three weeks. She also matched her season-high score of 9.900 on floor in the process.
“I just had the biggest smile on my face, just to get the full in and the double pike in,” Baskett said. “Last week I did it in Washington but I stepped out of bounds, but I’m finally figuring out my landings and going after my landings instead of just throwing and guessing.”
Just as with her team, it turned out Friday was just a precursor of things to come later in the weekend for Baskett.
Baskett lent a strong hand in Utah’s 197.450-195.825 road win over rival UCLA by scoring at least a 9.875 on all four events. In fact, Baskett’s 9.875 on beam was the only time she did not score a 9.925. The performance led an all-around score of 39.650, which was good for Baskett’s season high and fell just one-half of a point short from her career best. Baskett’s all-around score on Sunday also put her into a tie for the 10th best all-around score in team history.
Despite the quick turnaround and weary legs from being at home on Friday to competing in UCLA’s Pauley Pavillion on Sunday, Baskett managed to tie her career best on floor. If not for Postell’s third all-around score of 39.7 or higher this season — she finished with a 39.725 — Baskett might have taken home her first all-around victory of the season.
With the way Baskett is performing this season, she might just end up being the two-time all-around National Champion runner up’s closest competition when nationals rolls around. Either way, she has teamed with Ashley Postell to become a dangerous one-two punch that is the exclamation point at the end of the Red Rocks’ vastly improving lineup.
“There’s something special about this group, and they seem to be gaining more and more confidence each week,” Marsden said.