Kentucky coach Tim Garrison greeted junior Delaynee Rodriguez after her performance on uneven bars. (Vicky Graff Photo)
It was not the overall performance that coach Tim Garrison wanted but he certainly had no complaints about what junior Delaynee Rodriguez did.
Rodriguez won balance beam, floor exercise and all-around titles Friday night in Memorial Coliseum in front of a sold-out crowd of 5,926 but Kentucky dropped a 195.750-194.325 decision to Arizona State because it had four falls on balance beam.
Rodriguez did her part of beam after watching four teammates fall and another one almost fall but delivering a 9.850 that was good enough to take the individual title. She won floor exercise with a 9.875 that clinched the all-around title with a score of 39.400 for the second week in a row to give her her second straight overall win and fourth overall title in her career. It was her first titles on beam and floor.
“That’s what Delaynee is. Regardless of what’s going on around her, she’s going to perform to that level. That’s just who she is,” Garrison said. “That’s how she performs. She just doesn’t really get fazed, so we’re happy for that.
“She’s a fantastic competitor and an even better person, I know we’ve been over that so glad to see her out there in her element, once again, in front of her crowd at HMC (Historic Memorial Coliseum) doing what she does best.”
Garrison was not surprised Rodriguez delivered such an impressive beam performance after her teammates got rattled.
“That’s what makes her so special is the fact that people around her can get rattled, and she does not let that affect her. I don’t know if it’s a personality trait. It’s just Delaynee and you can’t explain it, but whatever it is, we’re happy for it.”
Sophomore Anna Flynn Cashion claimed the vault title for the second straight meet also and matched her career best with a 9.950. That helped UK start with a 49.250 on vault, the team’s best score of the meet. Freshman Addisyn Hofseth had a career-high 9.775 before Cecily Rizo hit a season-high 9.850 Callie Gardner delivered another season-high at 9.775 and Ryan Noonan a 9.825 before Rodriguez scored a season-high 9.850.
Rodriguez came up big as anchor on uneven bars with a 9.825 routine. Balance beam started with Sharon Lee fighting to avoid a fall and scoring a 9.750 but the next four UK gymnasts all fell.
Kentucky had a 49.075 on floor but that was not enough to catch Arizona State.
Garrison had no overall complaints about UK’s performance on vault, uneven bars and floor. However, the collapse on beam has to be fixed.
“We have to understand what happened. But we have to also understand that beam has been one of our best events for years. It has carried us in a lot of meets and brought us home a lot of meets with a win,” the UK coach said. “We’re gonna have to remember that. We’re gonna have to develop a little amnesia from this and just understand that they’re prepared and they’re good and and we’re gonna have to move on from this.
“So three out of four went almost as planned. Pretty solid day for us on those events. We just got rattled on beam, something I’ve seen happen not often, thank goodness, but I’ve seen it happen before and once it kind of gets in their minds you need somebody to turn it around. Unfortunately, until Delaynee walked up there, we didn’t have that tonight.”
What Kentucky did have was a noisy, rowdy crowd like it annually has for Excite Night.
“It was rocking from where I was sitting. I get focused on the floor, and I did look around and at some point during the meet. I looked up and I was like, ‘Yep, they’re here.’ They’re always here. And they were loud,” Garrison said about the fans. “It’s an incredible event. It is every year. People look forward to it.
“Now we need to get them back for the next meet, get them back for Oklahoma (on Jan. 30) and make every meet an Excite Night.”
Before hosting defending national champion Oklahoma, Kentucky will go to 2024 national champion LSU this Friday.
Kentucky-Arizona State Gymnastics
Photos by Vicky Graff
