Magness Arena hosted their annual Blackout Magness meet on Sunday afternoon, where the No. 10 DU gymnastics team competed against No 1. Oklahoma University, No. 11 UCLA and Stanford.
The afternoon began with UCLA on beam, bringing the heat for the rest of the competition as the Bruins’ Emily Lee ended her routine on a perfect back handspring.
DU started the event on the vault. While she stumbled a little bit during her landing, senior Bella Mabanta ended with a 9.800 to start the Crimson and Gold off. Senior Rosie Casali followed with another incredible vault performance, sticking her landing for a score of 9.950.
Oklahoma University spent their first rotation on floor, where Jordan Bowers and Katherine LeVasseur ended their routines with a pair of 9.950s.
At the end of the first rotation, Oklahoma University scraped ahead by 0.225 points, with Denver following at 49.325 on vault, an amazing improvement from last weekend, which saw Denver at a 49.025.
The second rotation started with DU on uneven bars, where Casali seemed to have a point to prove. Not only did she stick her earlier vault rotation, but she did not stumble once during her dismount on the uneven bars, scoring a well-deserved 9.925.
Sophomore Kiley Rorich followed up Casali with a 9.875 after an on-point dismount. The stick in their landing seemed to be contagious, as senior Jessica Hutchinson followed up with another flawless dismount, earning DU’s 4th 9.875 on the uneven bars.
On vault, OU brought a dangerous edge to the competition, where their gymnasts stuck almost every single landing, bringing three of their gymnasts to a 9.950 at the end of their rotation.
UCLA spent their second rotation on floor, in which their athletes knew they had to perform to try to beat their point deficit. The Bruins had a strong start to their rotation, bringing in a 9.950 and a 9.900 with some incredible stunts, only stumbling a little bit on some of the landings.
Stanford began to fall behind, as their beam rotation ended with an average of a 9.695.
The point deficit between DU and OU increased to 0.375 at the end of their second rotation, but UCLA managed to get up to a tie with DU at 98.775. Stanford trailed behind at 97.725, needing to make up 1.050 to try to move up on the leaderboard.
DU’s third rotation was on beam, where Junior Momoko Iwai ended her well-executed routine with a slight stumble, bringing her first total of the night to 9.775. Mabanta went next on beam, but a bit of stumbling during the entirety of her routine led to a 9.475. The pressure was on for senior Rylie Mundell, who ended her routine with another stumble, but overall made a deserved 9.700.
Stanford needed to bring up their scores on floor for their third rotation, and their first gymnast Claire Dean ended her routine with a 9.875. Stanford was starting to make the comeback their team needed on floor, as Amanda Zeng came in with a 9.800 to follow. At the end of the third rotation, UCLA moved in front of the Crimson and Gold, with DU now 0.250 points away from second place and 0.900 points away from OU at the top.
The fourth rotation was going to be high pressure for DU, needing to perfect their floor routines. Rorich started off with a floor routine ending in a 9.900, and Iwai followed her up with little stumbles getting another 9.850 for the DU board.
Hutchinson had a great night tonight, scoring a 9.950 on floor despite a small stumble towards the end. She ended with an all-around of 39.625, helping to get DU back in second place.
The Crimson and Gold ended the afternoon in second place to the University of Oklahoma, scoring a 197.175. Individually, Hutchinson placed third in all-around action and took home a floor event title. Casali found herself in a four-way tie for first place in the vault event and second in the bars event.
The Crimson and Gold will be going to Oklahoma to go head to head against the Sooners again on Friday, Jan. 26.
