By LARRY VAUGHT
It’s hard to say it was a missed opportunity but it was easy to tell that Kentucky gymnastics coach Tim Garrison knew a few miscues cost his team a chance to beat No. 3 LSU.
The Tigers (8-2, 5-1 SEC) beat No. 9 Kentucky 197.200-197.075 in front of a sold-out crowd of 6,098 fans and an SEC Network audience.
Garrison said the experience would improve his team because it was not that far off a winning performance.
“I think we did our job in a lot of ways, but I think there are some things that we can do a lot better,” the UK coach said. “I think as we go back and look at the routines that we perform, we can dig into the details and find where those subtle mistakes are.”
Garrison said adjustments needed can be made moving forward.
“I’m not disappointed with the majority of what we did, but we definitely left ourselves vulnerable, which I’ve talked about before,” Garrison said. “This is an example of being vulnerable and having mistakes cost you, and that’s what happened tonight.”
Isabella Magnelli had a sensational performance as she won titles on vault and beam to increase her career total to 22. Magnelli scored a 9.925 on vault, UK’s first rotation. Senior All-American Makenzie Wilson also stuck her front handspring pike half to post a 9.900.
Magnelli was again spectacular on beam where she is ranked No. 1 in the SEC and No. 2 in the NCAA. She had her 11th career score of 9.950 to claim the win. The fifth year has not gone below 9.900 on the event this season.
Sophomore Delaynee Rodriguez earned her first career win on bars with a 9.875 — her second career event title. She also had a season-best 9.800 on vault. Skylar Killough-Wilhelm and Hailey Davis each delivered 9.850s on bars.
Creslyn Brose won her first event title of the season on the floor where UK had its best rotation score of the night with 49.425 points. Brose had a season-best 9.950 and now has scored 9.9 or higher 18 straight times on the floor in her UK career. Brose also had a 9.925 routine on the beam, the best score of her career.
Garrison isn’t sure coming that close to beating LSU rally boosted UK’s confidence.
“I think the fact that we know we’re good, that’s not a question in our mind,” the UK coach said. “We know we need to improve. I think that’s the biggest thing — we need to improve. I think that goes without saying.”
He said losing on UK’s home floor “doesn’t really feel good” even if LSU is ranked No. 3.
“Getting close doesn’t feel good knowing that we can change what we’re doing wrong,” Garrison said. “That makes me feel good knowing that we haven’t done it but the fact remains, that we have some time. I think we’re in a good spot to make a lot of improvements. I think this is a perfect example of some of the improvements we need to make.”
