The Utah gymnastics team has a few faces to thank for its close win over Oregon State on Saturday. Senior Breanna Hughes continued to lead the team this season with another great performance, freshman Sabrina Schwab had a near-perfect score in her floor routine and sophomore Maddy Stover lead the Red Rocks on the beam to help defeat the Beavers.
But it was junior Baely Rowe who stole the show in the Red Rocks’ Pac-12 opener, grabbing MVP honors following her impressive routines on the bars and beam. Co-head coach Tom Farden didn’t hesitant to mention how well Rowe competed in her events.
“[Rowe] was really awesome today,” said Farden. “She looked great in all her events. She’s really hitting her groove and hitting her strive now. We’re really pleased with that.”
Rowe started her MVP performance with a decent showing on the vault, grabbing a 9.775 score in the process, but she came alive with her expertise on the bars, scoring a 9.950 in her near-perfect routine. She then finished the night on the beam with a crowd-pleasing, Michael Jackson-referencing performance, but only earned a 9.90, which disappointed the sold-out crowd.
After earning her best performance on the bars in her college career, Rowe felt her teammates helped build her confidence to get the job done and trusted her training and rituals to help get the Red Rocks by a tough Beavers team.
“I honestly build off my teammates,” said Rowe. “They were doing a really good job on our last few events. I’ve just been doing what I’ve been working on practice, and do my rituals. I just went out there and was confident.”
With her best scores so far this season coming from the bars — including a 9.925 score in the team’s first meet against BYU — Rowe knew she had to get back to the top of the results after her 9.875 score in her second meet against SUU. Rowe hit every part of her routine with near-perfection, and knew once she stuck the landing that it was the best routine she had done in her time with the Red Rocks.
“Well throughout the routine I was hitting every part well,” said Rowe. “I was just telling myself to keep going, and when I hit the landing I knew it was the best routine I’ve done. I was just really happy, and building off my teammates that went before really helped me out.”
But even though it was her night on the bars, Rowe also felt that she improved massively on the beam following her disappointing 9.475 score in Cedar City. She mentioned a major bump in confidence with her routine.
“Before beam I just tell myself to be confident and aggressive no matter what,” said Rowe. “I think that’s what I did tonight, and wasn’t afraid what was ahead of me.”
Now, with the junior taking honors for the first time this season, confidence is at a high for Rowe, and she will hope to use that to improve her routines at training over the coming days.
Rowe and the rest of the team are looking forward to their next challenge, and hope to continue the climb up the polls and fight for a place in the National Championships by season’s end. Rowe will be a major contributor towards that cause and will continue to improve in order to make that goal a reality.
@chad_marquez