By Andrew Hartley (@andrewhart1ey) – Spear Reporter
Senior Lauren Macpherson mid-air as she performs her floor routine, the second-best team score in SJSU history. I Photo by Andrew Hartley – The Spear
For the first time in the Joanne Bowers era, San Jose State gymnastics scored over 196 for the fifth-consecutive meet in a row. One could say Friday’s meet was a good way to send it into the Mountain West Championship.
A 196.650 was only good enough for second as No. 3 Cal Berkeley won the event with a 198.500. But by no means did Cal steal the show.
Floor has proven to be San Jose State’s strongest event all year and showed again Friday.
Freshman Mia Nelson had a career-high floor routine with a 9.950 finishing as the event-winner. This was the only event Nelson took part in but she’s known for competing in vault as well.
Lauren Macpherson finished with 9.925’s in both the floor and beam routine. This would tie the second-highest team floor routine in program history.
A shaky 9.200 bars performance prevented Macpherson from a higher all-around finish. But there shouldn’t be much concern for the five-time Mountain West Gymnast of the Week.
High scores continued elsewhere as the vault team’s 49.125 was the third-best score in school history. The team was led by senior Jaudai Lopes who scored a 9.875 and also contributed a 9.900 on the floor. Lopes recently announced via Instagram that she is returning to SJSU for a fifth-year of competition.
Another nice freshman performance came from Marissa Ashton tying her career high on beam with a 8.875, tying for sixth overall.
Bars was once again the weakest event for the Spartans and has statistically been their worst scoring event this season. Katherine Weyhmiller finished with a 9.850 but no other Spartan finished above a 9.800. Something to keep an eye on going into a huge next week.
So what’s up next? A chance at a conference championship. Something San Jose State has been familiar with in the MPSF. But the Mountain West is another beast, especially with No. 26 Boise State standing in its way. The meet is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. in Logan, Utah this Friday.