USU Gymnastics Concludes Regular Season Saturday In Tri-Meet At Southern Utah With No. 17 Iowa Add Comment    Mar 08, 2011

UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY

ATHLETIC MEDIA RELATIONS

USU Gymnastics Concludes Regular Season Saturday In Tri-Meet At Southern Utah With No. 17 Iowa

Aggies Facing Hawkeyes For First Time Since 1991, Fourth Time Tangling With T-Birds This Season

Utah State at Southern Utah

with #17 Iowa

SUU Centrum - (5,300)

Cedar City, Utah

Saturday, March 12, 2011 - 2 p.m. (MT)

REGULAR-SEASON FINALE ON TAP Utah State (2-12, 1-4 WAC) gymnastics will conclude regular-season action on Saturday, March 12 in a matinee tri-meet at Cedar City, Utah hosted by Southern Utah (8-5, 3-2 WAC) along with No. 17 Iowa (9-6)... The three-team battle between the Aggies, Hawkeyes and Thunderbirds starts at 2 p.m. (MT) at SUUs Centrum (5,300).

RICHARDS REUNION Saturdays tri-meet will have special meaning for USU head coach Jeff Richards, as he was an assistant at both SUU and Iowa, coaching at Southern Utah from 1991-98, earning his degree from SUU in 1995, and was an assistant coach at Iowa from 2005-2008, before coming to Utah State.

PUPIL VS. TEACHERS Its not quite as famous as noteworthy pupil vs. teacher matchups like Luke Skywalker vs. Yoda, Corey vs. Mr. Feeny, Daniel-san vs. Mr. Miyagi, Neil Perry vs. John Keating, Henry David Thoreau vs. Ralph Waldo Emerson, or even Bob Knight-Mike Krzyzewski, but Saturdays meet features third-year USU head coach Jeff Richards facing both of his former bosses, as he was an assistant under the other two head coaches in Saturdays tri-meet, coaching under SUU head coach Scott Bauman from 1991-98 and under Iowa head coach Larissa Libby from 2005-2008, before becoming head coach of the USU program in the summer of 2008.

COACHING TRIANGLE Richards was replaced on the Iowa staff by Caleb Phillips, who left SUU after four years as an assistant for Bauman and the T-Birds.

RIGHT OFF THE OL CORN COB Both of the Utah-based head coaches began their coaching careers as student assistants for Utah State legendary head coach Ray Corn, with Richards coaching from 1988-90 while Bauman was with the Aggies through his 1990 graduation.

ALMA MATER SWAP Saturdays meet also features a match-up between two head coaches leading the opposites alma mater, as USUs Richards is a 1995 Southern Utah graduate while SUUs Bauman is a 1990 graduate of Utah State. 

OTHER ALMA MATER SWAPPERS There are some other support staff members involved in Saturdays tri-meet who will be coaching or working against their alma maters, as Iowa assistant coach Caleb Phillips is a SUU graduate, as well as Utah State graduate assistant athletic trainer Josh Johnson.

FOURTH OF FIVE OVERALL WITH T-BIRDS After facing each other three times in the the first five meets of the season, including back-to-back meets on Jan. 29 and Feb. 4, USU and SUU are meeting for the fourth time overall and this season... The Aggies and T-Birds tangled in both teams season-opener on Jan. 7 (#20 SUU 193.475-192.800), in a quad at BYU and Iowa State on Jan. 29 (#16 SUU 3rd 194.275, USU 4th 191.900) and in a dual at Cedar City (#19 SUU 194.000-192.125)... Saturday is the first meeting this season in which SUU hasnt been ranked... The two teams will meet again, marking the fifth time this season, on March 19 at the WAC Championships in San Jose, Calif.

NOT SO FAMILIAR WITH THE HAWKEYES While USU is quite familiar with SUU, having faced them so much this season and regularly throughout the past, Utah State is meeting Iowa for the first time since 1991, before some of the current gymnasts were born and those that were born were wee infants.

WAC GYMNASTICS TICKET INFO   Tickets for the WAC Gymnastics Championships are available through the USU Ticket Office at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum, by phone by calling 1-888-USTATE-1 or (435) 797-0305.

LIVE RESULTS Live results for Saturdays tri-meet are available by clicking on the Live Results link at www.UtahStateAggies.com, the official web site of USU athletics.   * Note the links will only work after the start of the meet. 

LIVE VIDEO Fans can watch the meet on Saturday, live online by clicking on the Watch Live link at www.UtahStateAggies.com, the official web site of USU athletics.  Fans will have to register and pay a small fee to watch.

UP NEXT Utah State will compete in the WAC Championships on Saturday, March 19, at The Event Center in San Jose, Calif., hosted by San Jose State... Last season, USU finished third in the WAC Championships, while the T-Birds of SUU are the defending WAC Champions.

TWITTER / FACEBOOK Fans can also get live updates from the meets as well as other team information through the USU Twitter and Facebook pages - Twitter: www.twitter.com/USUGymnastics and Facebook: UtahStategymnastics

IN THE RANKINGS Utah State is No. 45 in the Troester/GymInfo Womens Gymnastics National Rankings, which starting going by Regional Qualifying Scores (RQS) on Feb. 21... USU has an RQS of 192.265... Iowa is No. 17 with a 195.515 RQS, along with a season-average of 195.116 and a season-high of 196.350... Southern Utah is No. 33 with an RQS of 194.285, along with a 194.150 season-average and a high score of 195.750 on the season.

Rank Team RQS Region Conf

Div

Avg.

High

17 Iowa 195.515 NC Big 10 1 195.116 196.350 

33 Southern Utah 194.285 NC WAC 1 194.150 195.750 

45 Utah State 192.685 NC WAC 1 192.480 194.550   

ABOUT UTAH STATE The Aggies have a 192.265 Regional Qualifying Score (RQS), as well as a 192.480 average and a 194.550 high score on the season, which they hit in Fridays home finale... USU is currently fourth in the WAC, eighth in the North Central Region and No. 45 in the nation... In its last action, on Senior Night on Friday for Utah State, it was USUs two seniors, Lyndsie Boone and Jackie Dillon, who shone bright in each posting career-high all-around scores to lead the Aggies to their season high team total and first WAC win of the season with a 194.550-190.700 win over Cal State Fullerton.

The 194.550 was the Aggies highest score since a 195.175 at the 2007 WAC Championships and the highest regular-season score since a 194.675 earlier in the 2007 season... Friday was USUs first WAC win since March 7, 2008 vs. San Jose State. 

Through Utah States 10 meets, the Aggies now have 17 individual winners after Fridays four event winners, collecting three event titles and the all-around win... It was Utah States second meet this season with three event winners, but the first of the year with a total of four titles counting the all-around.

Utah State is fourth in the WAC in not only team total (192.685 RQS/192.480 avg.), but also fourth in all four events, posting a 48.275 RQS and 48.173 average on vault, a 48.430 RQS and 48.275 average on bars, a 47.815 RQS and 47.623 average on beam as well as a 48.550 RQS and 48.410 average on floor.  

Individually, junior Nicole Simoneau is third in the WAC on bars, as well as tied for eighth in the North Central region and tied for No. 45 in the country with a 9.835 RQS and a 9.770 average... Simoneau is also 11th in the conference and tied for 24th in the region on beam with a 9.70 RQS and a 9.619 average... Senior Lyndsie Boone is 12th in the WAC and tied for 26th in the region on floor with a 9.730 RQS and a 9.741 average... Fellow senior Jackie Dillon is sixth in the WAC, 12th in the region and 75th in the nation in the all-around, logging a 38.410 RQS and a 38.353 average... Dillon also is eighth in the conference and tied for 17th in the region on floor with a 9.790 RQS and a 9.768 average.

AGGIES BEAM TEAM BEAMING USU has bettered its season-high on beam in each of the last three meets, posting a 49.000 in Fridays dual... The 49.000 is just shy of the Aggie Top 10 lists, and would be ranked tied No. 11 in the USU record books, just behin

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