By Jonathan Cañas (@jonathancanas_) – Spear Reporter
Lauren Macpherson gathering herself before ending her beam routine with a dismount. I Photo by Andrew Hartley – The Spear
San Jose State gymnastics was at the wrong end of a dramatic win against Utah State in its 195.925-195.725 loss in Logan, Utah.
On the bright side for the Spartans (6-5, 2-2 MW), they narrowly won the first three rotations. Spartan junior Sophia Konieczny fell on the final attempt of the beam rotation, scoring a 9.000.
For the Aggies (4-10, 2-0 MW), all pressure fell on graduate student Alivia Ostendorf to complete at least a 9.700 on the floor routine. She wound up scoring a team-high 9.875 to secure the win and title.
Spartan senior Lauren Macpherson ended the first rotation with a bang on the unbalanced bars, tying for first with a 9.850. Macpherson finished off her night scoring a team high 9.825 on the beam to try and to keep the Spartans within reach. She also won her fifth all around title this season with a 39.275.
SJSU seniors Jaudai Lopes and Madison Kirsch tied for first on the vault with a 9.825 in the second rotation.
Following that, Macpherson, Lopes and Jada Mazury each tied with a 9.825 in their floor routines.
Utah State is now 17-16 all time against SJSU, earning bragging rights with this win.
“I’m glad we got on their equipment to get used to everything since we’re going to back in about a month for conference championships” said SJSU head coach Joanne Bowers. This will be the first Mountain West conference championships held for gymnastics.
In the mean time, SJSU’s next stop will be to take on UC Davis on Feb. 25 at 2 p.m.