By Nick Austin – senior staff writer | Sophomore Devyn Valuch participating in her beam routine (photo by Larry Larkin – Spear photographer)
The San Jose State women’s gymnastics (6-8-1, 2-4 MW) team won a close meet against the Utah State Aggies (5-9, 2-3 MW) as it posted a cumulative score of 195.400 to 195.175.
Sophomore Devyn Valuch highlighted the day with a personal best and team best of 9.900 on the balance beam.
“Once I landed my dismount I kind of felt it all come together and I knew that was gonna be a good score,” Valuch said. “I’ve never gotten a 9.900 before, I wasn’t expecting that but it was a nice surprise.”
Sophomore Olivia Reardon had a good meet as well scoring first on vault, second on uneven bars and third on the floor routine.
Reardon and Valuch were the only two to compete in all four events.
“Each event, it’s either a high or a low. So with beam, you gotta calm down a little bit,” Reardon said. “Just staying in the moment for each event and not thinking ahead, wondering what’s next…doing what I know I do.”
San Jose State looked solid across the board and was able to build up some momentum heading into its next stretch of meets, where it has three meets in eight days.
“We’re starting to see confidence now,” SJSU head coach Joanne Bowers said. “I think I’m more excited about that and the trend we’re on.”
Bowers noted the importance of the team’s next stretch of meets and building momentum as they prepare for the Mountain West Conference Championships.
“We feel like we’re doing our best gymnastics right now, so we want to get some traction going into conference,” Bowers said.
The Spartans will travel to UC Davis next as they will go up against UC Davis and Eastern Michigan at 7 p.m. on March 7 at the University Credit Union Center.
