BYU advances to NCAA regional semifinals with tiebreaker win over rival Boise State

The BYU Cougars’ women’s gymnastics team isn’t done with the 2024 season just yet.

It took every single routine (more on that in a bit) but BYU defeated rival Boise State Wednesday afternoon in the first round of the Fayetteville regional, earning a spot in the NCAA regional semifinals.

The win keeps BYU’s streak of consecutive trips (13) to the regional semifinals alive.

“Every year, you have a different make-up with different players, and the make-up of this team this year is about fight and having each other’s backs,” BYU head coach Guard Young said in a statement. “And how do you tie the first round of the NCAA tournament? It’s by fighting and having each other’s backs, so today embodied what this team is all about.”

The streak was in doubt for much of the afternoon, as the Broncos and Cougars went back and forth all competition long.

Case in point, Boise State led after the first rotation, BYU rallied to lead after the second rotation, and then Boise State pulled ahead again to lead after the third rotation. BYU managed to rally again, on balance beam no less, and the Cougars ultimately did enough to tie the meet at 195.750 after four events.

The tiebreaker scenario in NCAA women’s gymnastics involves counting all routines competed — normally, six routines are competed on every event with the top five scores being counted, the lowest score dropped — and after deliberate calculations, BYU was determined to have the higher overall score, with a 233.65 to Boise State’s 233.40.

It was an incredibly close competition between the former Mountain Rim Conference rivals who hadn’t competed against one another this season following BYU’s move to the Big 12.

Three Cougars were event winners — Anna Bramblett on uneven bars (9.875); Brynlee Andersen on beam (9.90); and Sydney Benson on floor exercise (9.825).

Boise State had three event winners as well — Emily Lopez on vault (9.90); Emma Loyim on beam, tying Andersen; and Blake Pascal on floor, tying Benson.

With the victory, the Cougars will compete against the No. 2-ranked LSU Tigers, the No. 15-ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers and the No. 18-ranked Oregon State Beavers Thursday night at 6 p.m. MDT., with the top two teams advancing to the Fayetteville regional final.

BYU hasn’t advanced to a regional final in the current NCAA postseason format — instituted in 2019 — and hasn’t advanced to the NCAA gymnastics championships, otherwise known as nationals, since 2005.

There is precedent for deep postseason runs after a successful first-round victory. In 2022, Stanford went from the first round all the way to the Seattle regional final before falling short. It will be a tall task for the Cougars, though, who entered the postseason with few expectations.

Ranked No. 32 in the Road to Nationals rankings, BYU was an underdog against Boise State. But when all was said and done Wednesday, the Cougars remain dancing.