Utah Utes gymnastics: 2nd-ranked Utes win 10 straight
"I just try to do my best, and my best wasn't tonight," she said after she suffered her first two falls in nearly a year Friday night and then was taken out of the floor lineup.
But the second-ranked Ute gymnastics team was able to overcome that stunning development and win its 10th straight meet, and even if it wasn't a pretty win, that was a positive sign, just like Postell's calmness in handling her first setbacks of her senior season.
Like Postell, the Utes later didn't have too many worries about a night in which they scored season lows on bars and beam after tying the season high on vault, then made off with a 196.30-195.15 win in the Huntsman Center over No. 7-ranked Oregon State.
The Beavers, 9-3, had their season low on bars as well and suffered the loss of their top floor worker and one of their best gymnasts, Tasha Smith, when she crumpled on floor with an ankle injury with still one event left.
Postell's fall on bars, her second event Friday, ended her string of consecutive made routines at 49, 14 short of Suzanne Metz's school record from 1994-95 of 63 straight makes. It also ended Postell's pursuit of Metz's single-season record of 56 straight routines without a miss. Postell went 31 straight in 2008 until missing Friday and scoring 8.85 with a big bounce on her landing as well.
After the fall on bars, she was thinking, "Where did that come from?" she said.
"I knew something wasn't really right as I was doing the skill before I fell, the pirouette to a toe-on, and I tried to just keep going, and it didn't work out so well.
"My grips were weird; they weren't really on the bar, and I tried to keep going, and it wasn't a very good plan, apparently.
"I thought I'd regrouped fine before beam. I started off fine. But my series, that was weird, too."
But after she sat on the floor looking forlorn following beam, she did not seem to be depressed afterward in talking to the media.
"I hope I can get those out of my system now. Better now than later," said Postell, who still has good shots at the Ute records for event wins and all-around wins in a single season, career event wins and All-America awards (at the NCAA Championships).
"Ashley has saved our bacon so many times," said coach Greg Marsden, "it was an opportunity for other people to cover for her."
He was not overly concerned about bars and beam, partly because Utah came back with a reasonably good floor set, despite Daria Bijak putting her hands down on a low punch front and being docked for a fall. Jessica Duke opened with 9.8, Stephanie Neff came back from several weeks off for an Achilles injury to step into Postell's place on short notice and scored 9.8, Annie DiLuzio punched out a 9.9, and Kristina Baskett scored 9.875 while completing all of her upgraded segments well.
Recent comments
Ashley and all the Utes are awesome. Go Red Rocks!
Stenar | March 8, 2008 at 7:41 p.m.
GO Red Rock! I think people need to cut ashley some slack. so she...
RedRock#1Fan | March 8, 2008 at 9:38 a.m.
