Vicky Graff Photo
Before Kentucky’s first home meet of the season, Delaynee Rodriguez took a spill on her warmup vault. However, while the junior gymnast did not win vault that night, she did place first on balance beam, floor exercise and all-around.
“We don’t really change skills in the middle of a meet because I’ve been training to do my routine, so to change in a meet is kind of sporadic. You have to believe in yourself and trust your training,” said Rodriguez. “So I am not going to change because I feel in warmups. I am not going to let that determine what I am going to do.”
While Kentucky has failed to win a meet this season after falling 197.550-196.475 to No. 1 Oklahoma, the defending national champion, Rodriguez has been on quite a roll and it continued against the Sooners.
Rodriguez had the best performance of her career Friday night when she won the all-around title with a career-high four-event score of 39.550. It was her third all-around title this season after she had only two all-around titles combined in her first two seasons at UK. Her only loss this season came at No. 2 LSU.
The junior from Las Vegas also set a career-high on vault, sticking her upgraded Yurchenko 1.5 for the first time and scoring a 9.925.
She was also third overall n vault with her 9.925 and fourth on balance beam with a 9.850, trying Ryan Noonan for UK’s best score, On balance beam, her 9.900 was second overall and her floor exercise that was scored at 9.875 was second to teammate Creslyn Brose’s 9.950.
Brose, a returning All-American, missed UK’s first two meets in concussion protocol but was dazzling in her first home meet of the year to secure her seventh title on floor. Brose has now scored 9.9+ in 25 of 28 career floor routines. The junior from North Carolina also had a 9.875 on beam
Coach Tim Garrison’s team — which has only one senior — had season-best scores on uneven bars, balance beam, and floor exercise with the 49.350 on floor outscoring Oklahoma. Van Frayen led off with a solid 9.800 while Chesney Bennett and Callie Gardner’s had scores of 9.875 and 9.850, respectively. Cecily Rizo posted a 9.775 in the No. 4 position, followed by Rodriguez’s 9.875and Brose’s 9.950.
Four UK gymnasts — Bennett and Gardner on the floor exercise, Addisyn Hofseth on vault, and Rizo in the all-around. — set or matched career high scores against Oklahoma
Kentucky will seek its first win when it competes at No. 11 Auburn on Friday.
Kentucky-Oklahoma Gymnastics
Photos by Vicky Graff
