Creslyn Brose with teammates celebrating her perfect 10 on floor exercise during Friday's win over Arkansas. (Larry Vaught Photo)
Maybe it wasn’t a perfect Senior Night for Kentucky gymnastics but it certainly was close.
All No. 9 Kentucky did was post season-high scores on three apparatus, win all five individual events and beat No. 16 Arkansas 197.925-197.725 with a season-high point total and third highest score in program history.
If that wasn’t enough, sophomore sensation Creslyn Brose had a perfect 10 on floor exercise that gave her a win for the third straight meet in this event. However, she was also UK’s next to last performer and her score moved Kentucky ahead of Arkansas and senior teammate Hailey Davis clinched the win by scoring a 9.975 that most in Memorial Coliseum felt should have been a second straight 10.
Kentucky had a 49.725 on floor, the program’s third best mark, and also had 49.525 on beam, also tying the program’s third best all-time mark. The 49.425 on vault was UK’s ninth best all-time mark.
Kentucky coach Tim Garrison knew it was a “fantastic” performance by his team over a “strong” Arkansas team.
“They were pushing us all the way through the night. We pretty much had a half 10th lead all night long, and then going in that last rotation, they kept going up and just hitting beam routine after beam routine after beam routine,” Garrison said. “But (UK’s) floor kept pace and then …”
That’s when Brose and Dailey delivered consecutive dramatic performances that had teammates and Kentucky fans screaming their approval.
Brose became the fourth Kentucky gymnast ever to score a perfect 10 on floor joining Jenny Hansen, current teammate Makenzie Wilson, and current UK assistant coach Raena Worley. Brose’s routine was the 11th perfect floor score in school history — Hansen has six and Worley had four last season. It is the 36th perfect ten across all routines in school history. It was the 36th perfect score across all routines in school history.
Kentucky gymnasts had at least a 9.950 from its top scorer on all four events. Senior Isabella Magnelli had a 9.950 on vault and near-perfect 9.975 on beam to take both titles. Senior Skylar Killough-Wilhelm won bars with a 9.950 and had a season best 39.625 to win her fourth all-around title of the season.
Kentucky has one more regular-season meet at Florida and then the SEC Championships March 22 in Birmingham and NCAA Championships in April.
“This is what we’re missing all year long having this kind of performance,” Garrison said. “The score is really building. It just feels like it has felt like throughout the season, but it’s just we haven’t quite had that happen.
“I felt like we got better even though we came out losing that last (home) meet to LSU, I felt like we got better that night. I felt like we went to Georgia, I thought we were better with a couple of little mistakes. And it was more of a championship feel, it really was.
“Ten tonight, it was even more of a championship feel because we were going back and forth with them all night long. So special night. Always difficult to celebrate the seniors because you’re trying to celebrate at the same time you’re saying bye at least to the home crowd buoyed by the fact that our season is not over.
“I’ll see him in the gym on Sunday. So that’s always a good thing but it was a special night, and I’m hoping this would be part of the pun, but a springboard moving forward.”
