TWU Gymnastics to Host AZ, BYU, and UWW in 2013 Home Opener

Jan 16, 2013 by The GymShark

The excitement and tension in the North Texas air is building as the TWU Pioneers of Denton, TX will host their first home meet of the 2013 season this Saturday Jan. 19, 7:00pm, at Kitty Magee Arena.

Folks, this is going to be a good one as the home opener this year is a quad-meet with #13 Arizona, #25 BYU, and Wisconsin-Whitewater invited to the party.

The 2013 Pioneers are reaching for the stars and are not shy about saying they intend to challenge for the national championship.

The Pioneers’ confidence is not without good reason. They have a talented group of All-American upperclassmen returning from last year’s team (which placed second at the national championships) led by junior Courtney Cochefski, the defending national champion on uneven bars, and Bethany Larimer, who this week was named the Midwest Independent Conference (MIC) Specialist of the Week.

But in TWU’s first meet of the 2013 campaign vs. Bowling Green, the Pioneers only scored 191.800 albeit in victory. TWU had to count too many low scores due to falls on uneven-bars (normally a strong event for them) and stumbles on floor exercise.

Oddly, it was the balance beam which saved the day as Bethany Larimer came through with a 9.800 and Spencer Jones, who was very impressive on beam in the pre-season exhibition, scored 9.775, which probably could have gone higher.

If the Pioneers expect to win their home opener on Saturday, they have to deliver big scores on their best events and stay on that balance beam like they did against Bowling Green.

TWU will have its work cut out for them as the competition will be tough. BYU is coming off an impressive showing at the Cancun Classic where they held their own against Oregon State scoring 194.475, and then scoring 194.075 in their next meet against Utah State.

BYU gymnast Raquel Willman got the top score on bars at the Cancun Classic, and her teammate Megan Bain scored a career high 9.90 on balance beam.

Meanwhile the Arizona Wildcats just scored 195.850 last Saturday in front of a record crowd, finishing in second place, just .175 behind Stanford’s 196.025. If not for some big steps on vault, Arizona may have beaten Stanford.

Not only that, Arizona also scored a strong 49.400 on floor exercise; a very tough score for the other teams to match.

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater will also be tough competition. UWW tied for first place at the 2012 Division III NCGA championships last year and they are very confident of their chances to repeat that success again this year.

Think about the fascinating blend of talent competing in this quad meet: two Division I schools, No. 13 Arizona and No. 25 BYU – one Division II school, host TWU who was second at the Division II championships – and one Division III school, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, the defending Division III co-champions.

This is going to be an action-packed competition and I can’t wait for it to start!

The GymShark will be circling the Kitty Magee Arena this weekend bringing you lots of juicy pictures and video of TWU's home opener to snack on, so be sure to check back in a few days.