Gymnastics narrowly defeats Missouri in annual Pink Meet

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By Lindsay Travis | @KyKernelSports

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No. 17 UK (4-3-1, 2-2-1 SEC) defeated the SEC newcomer Missouri (1-6, 0-4 SEC) 194.250 to 194.200 at the annual Pink Meet in Memorial Coliseum Friday.

It was the first time in almost 21 years that the Cats have won over the Tigers. The night started off strong for the Cats, scoring a team-high 49.150 on uneven bars.

On the other side, Missouri made some early mistakes on vault that caused them to fall behind. But in the next rotation, the Cats would fall off the balance beam three times giving the Tigers the chance to catch up.

“We had a disastrous beam day and there’s no way around that. It was very uncharacteristic of our athletes,” UK Head Coach Tim Garrison said. UK remained focused in floor exercise, with four Cats scoring 9.800 or above.

“They finished off well. They had one minor mistake on floor, but beyond that I thought they performed really, really well,” Garrison said. “It’s a four-event meet, we have to hit all four events.”

Audrey Harrison won her third consecutive individual all-around title and ninth of the season. Missouri did have Sophomore Laura Kappler competing as an individual all-arounder. But Kappler was scratched from the last event after a bad landing during floor exercise in their previous rotation.

The Cats travel to Gainesville to take on No. 1 Florida in their next competition on Friday.