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PROVO — When the eyes of intercollegiate gymnastics turn to the state of Utah, they are usually trained on a program in Salt Lake City with 10 national championships and 31 NCAA Super Six appearances, the only women’s college team to qualify for every national championship meet since the NCAA recognized the sport in 1982.
All for good reason, with the No. 3 Red Rocks.
But Guard Young wants some of the focus to shift a short drive to the south—and in his third season as head coach at his alma mater BYU, that vision is beginning to take shape.
“Gymnastics in the state of Utah are phenomenal,” said Young, who won national championships at BYU in 1999 and 2000 before the university cut the men’s program. “Southern Utah also has a great program, and Utah State is another good one.
“We’re within a three-hour drive of any great school. Gymnastics fans in Utah really are spoiled with the quality of gymnastics that we have here.”
The BYU women’s gymnastics team, ranked in the top 25 in the country for the first time in 10 years, won its third-straight meet Friday night, 196.450-192.700 over Air Force. The Cougars were led by all-around champion Shannon Evans, who posted a career-high 39.300 that included a season-high on beam (9.85) and bars (9.875).
The Cougars’ 196.450 is their highest score of the season, more than two points higher than their opening-night loss at then-No. 5 Utah, and ranks as their highest team score since posting a 196.426 against Denver on Jan. 31, 2014.
The scores didn’t always come. BYU opened the season 194.275 against the Red Rocks, a cumulative total that included two falls on bars.
After that first rotation, the Cougars gradually got better.
Eventually, things started to click—and the scores caught up to performance.
“Our performance was there,” Young recalled of that night. “I told my girls, don’t worry about the scores; focus on gymnastics. We were doing good, clean, technically good gymnastics. That will give consistency, and that will lead to big scores—eventually.
“It’s starting to happen.”
No. 22 BYU has put together a deep squad of all four classes that constantly changes up gymnasts among the top-eight spots. Since Young and assistant coaches Natalie Broekman and Brogan Evans arrived in Provo in 2015, the Cougars have been building a program that they hope can compete on a national level again—much like their rivals to the north have done every year since the inception of college gymnastics.
But even more exciting for the Cougars? They’re still far from a finished product.
“Guard is a really great coach. But he focuses on the little details—the tenths that we can gain back in every meet,” senior all-around Jill van Mierlo said. “He’s very detail-oriented, and he loves numbers.”
Even as the BYU gymnasts are collecting dual-meet results, they are still looking for ways to get better through the long grind of the regular season. The collective scoring has only risen since the opening-night loss to the Red Rocks, now ranked No. 3 nationally—but Young says the Cougars have a lot of improvement left to make.
“It’s the little things; I always tell my team, the mark of a good team is not your six starters. It’s Nos. 7-9,” Young said. “We have a great team because our Nos. 7, 8 and 9 are pretty good gymnasts who aren’t starting right now.”
BYU is getting contributions from across its 24-athlete lineup, from star freshmen like Abby Boden to sophomore breakouts like Angel Zhong to senior team leaders like van Mierlo.
Van Mierlo, who placed third in the all-around at last year’s Mountain Rim Gymnastics Conference meet, defers a lot of credit for the Cougars’ turnaround to the young gymnasts.
“We had nine freshmen come in, and that brought in a lot of talent that pushed all the other girls on the team, too,” she said. “It rose everyone up, and I feel like we have a different expectation in the gym now. It’s been fun to have a bigger team that is united with team chemistry.”
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Season-best scores earn No. 3 Utah gymnastics big win at No. 21 Arizona
No. 3 Utah gymnastics left dust in the desert as it executed its best meet of the season against No. 21 Arizona, scoring a season-high 197.55-196.35.And the team isn’t done yet, van Mierlo quickly added.
Immediately following Friday night’s win over the Falcons, the coaches met with their team captains, and one thing came up: They can find six-tenths of a point. Breaking the 197-mark is possible for the Cougars.
Big results come via little details, Young reminds his gymnasts every day. Don’t try to focus on anything more than the small details—one handstand, dismount, landing or tap.
“Everyone is just doing what they need to do,” said Evans, the 2017 MRGC freshman of the year who has become a bars specialist, posting a 9.80 or better in 10 of 13 meets. “They aren’t trying to do more, or doing less. It’s just what they know how to do, and that’s what sells it.”
After the blowout loss at Utah on Jan. 5, the Cougars have been motivated. They followed up the disappointing performance with an upset of then-No. 10 Cal, then strung together back-to-back dual-meet wins over Southern Utah and Air Force.
Suddenly, the nation is looking at BYU’s program again. Following the win over the Golden Bears, BYU was ranked 18th nationally in the weekly coaches’ poll. Cumulative scoring dropped the Cougars to No. 22 this past week—but it wasn’t enough to drop them out.
“It was really fun being around such good gymnastics like that,” Evans said. “I think Guard knew what he was doing when we started out with that meet. Now we are at home, and we can build the team unity up again.”
