Winning and losing in gymnastics is not very important; scoring is what matters.
After losing to both No. 1 Alabama (196.150) and No. 10 Penn State (194.875) in their tri-meet, the Arizona Gymcats still moved up two places in the rankings to No. 11 in the country after scoring 194.350 Saturday.
"We definitely improved," said Arizona gymnastics head coach Bill Ryden. "So far we haven't competed against anybody that is out of the top 20."
Sophomore Gymcat Karin Wurm agreed.
"We know we are just as good as they are," she said.
The Gymcats still have to improve in several areas to start boosting scores and winning meets.
"We had a really disastrous first event (balance beam) and dug ourselves a 1 1/2-point hole," Ryden said.
The team finished with a score of 47.350, their lowest score of the meet. The highest score of 9.750 was achieved by sophomore Danielle Hicks.
"We are a little shaky on beam," Hicks said. "We still have some improvement to do there."
Even after the rough start, the Gymcats came back with great performances in the next three events to make it a close competition.
"The team didn't give up, and we came back," Ryden said. "It came down to where Penn State had to hit their last floor routine to beat us."
The Gymcats' score marked a 1.425-point improvement over their opening meet.
"Our scores went up because we all did better as a team," Hicks said.
Wurm led the all-around competition with a score of 39.025, a .775 improvement from her score at the Cancun Gymnastics Classic Jan. 6.
"I felt a lot more confident," Wurm said.
Hicks also upped her all-around score to finish with a 38.975.
"Overall I showed some improvement," she said.
The team scored a 48.975 on vault, as freshman Alexis Greene held her ground with a score of 9.875.
In the uneven bars, Hicks, Wurm and junior Aubrey Taylor all delivered scores of 9.875 to help the Gymcats achieve a 49.300 for their highest scoring event of the meet.
"That's the most amazing bars I've seen since I've been at Arizona," Wurm said.
Hicks worked her way in the floor exercise, garnering a 9.775.
The team finished with a 48.725 in the floor exercises.
"We still have a lot of work to do," Hicks said.
Ryden said he agreed with Wurm's assessment, believing that the Wildcats can continue to improve as a team and as individuals.
"We are still not where the routines need to be," Ryden said. "Now with this young team, we just got to get them to perform better."