Kentucky gymnastics pulls upset in front of near-record Excite Night crowd in Rupp
The University of Kentucky gymnastics team scored a major victory on Friday night. The 12th-ranked Wildcats upset No. 8 Missouri (196.475-195.500) in Rupp Arena, bouncing back from a tough season-opening loss at No. 5 Utah last week.
An enthusiastic crowd of 11,952 cheered on the Cats during Excite Night, the team’s annual promotion to kick off the home schedule. The crowd was about 500 spectators shy of the one that set the team’s attendance record at the same event last year.
Kentucky swept all four events and had the top individual scorer in three.
The Wildcats are looking to earn a national seed in NCAA regionals for the fourth straight year and hope to make it to the NCAA championship meet as a team for the second time in program history. One of just four seniors on the squad, Mollie Korth will play an important role in the Wildcats’ quest to reach those goals. She certainly delivered on Friday.
Korth, the reigning Southeastern Conference gymnast of the Week, posted the top score among both teams on vault (9.925), parallel bars (9.925) and floor (9.925). Her floor routine was the final performance of the meet and sealed the all-around victory for Kentucky.
“Mollie ignites the team, it’s as simple as that. She’s a huge all-arounder for us,” said UK Coach Tim Garrison after the win. “Every meet consistently she just brings the energy, she brings the performance, and the team can follow her lead. With the young team that we have right now we absolutely need her spark and she did it. We were moving other people around in the lineup and changing things as we were going along and she was the rock at the end that we knew was going to be there.”
Korth, who has been a team captain since her sophomore season, noticed a big change in Kentucky’s demeanor between the loss at Utah and Friday night.
“I saw a lot of confidence. At Utah we had a lot of new routines, so I think everybody is starting to get comfortable,” Korth said. “I think the freshmen and all the newer (teammates) are getting way more confident and I’m very happy for that.“
One of those talented freshman gave UK a big boost. Raena Worley was one of three Wildcats, along with Korth and Ella Warren, to compete in every event. She posted scores of 9.800 on bars and beam and was second overall to Korth with a 9.900 on the floor routine.
Garrison expects Worley to be a key cog for the Wildcats all season.
“Raena Worley had no idea she was going to be doing all-around tonight,” Garrison said. “She did not know she was going to be in bars until right before bars. So, I just talked to her about it and said ‘listen, you are ready for the big moment. You have (put up) so many numbers. You are comfortable, you are a confident competitor. Let’s see what you do on a big stage.’ And we put her out there and she had a phenomenal day.”
Warren posted UK’s top score on balance beam with a 9.875. Missouri’s Helen Hu had the leading score on beam with a 9.950, but UK athletes accounted for four of the top five scores in the event.
Kentucky returns to action next Friday when it hosts a quad meet in Memorial Coliseum at 7 p.m. North Carolina, N.C. State and Lindenwood will participate.
This story was originally published January 10, 2020 at 8:27 PM.
