LOGAN, Utah – Utah State's gymnastics team hits the road for the second time this season when the Aggies head to Utah County to face No. 16 BYU on Friday, Jan. 25, at 11 a.m., in the Cougars' annual Kids Meet at the Marriott Center in Provo.
 
Friday's Mountain Rim Gymnastics Conference dual meet against in-state rival BYU will be broadcast live on BYUtv. Additionally, live stats will be available on StatBroadcast.com and meet updates will be provided through the team's social media outlets.
 
In 2018, BYU's Kids Meet broke the program's attendance record after 5,112 local elementary school students flooded the Smith Fieldhouse. The previous record was 4,753 in 1999. More than 6,000 students are registered to attend the dual meet against Utah State and a new record is expected to be set on Friday.
 
"We are super excited to compete in the Marriott Center on Friday," said second-year Utah State head coach Amy Smith. "This is a huge advantage for us since the MRGC Championships are held in that arena this year. We also were excited to hear that this is a kids meet and there will be at least 6,000 kids in the stands. That kind of energy is going to be a ton of fun and really help out our team."
 
Friday is the second of three contests this season between the Aggies (1-3, 0-1 MRGC) and Cougars (1-1, 1-0 MRGC). The two teams met last weekend in Logan with BYU recording the 194.575-193.950 victory in front of 2,261 fans at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum. BYU and USU will also face each other at the MRGC Championships on Friday, March 22, also in Provo.
 
"The team has been very motivated this week to get into the gym and work," said Utah State senior all-arounder Madison Ward-Sessions. "We have been working on our landings and presentation, because we gave up unnecessary tenths last weekend that came back to hurt us. We really just need to put into play what we have been training because the way we train puts us in the top 25."
 
The Aggies are 48-77-1 all-time against the Cougars, including 25-24 at home, 10-32-1 on the road and 13-21 at a neutral site. BYU has won five straight in the series, including all three meetings in 2018. Prior to the Cougars' recent run of fortune, Utah State had won three in a row and seven of eight.
 
Utah State enters Friday's meet against BYU ranked 34th nationally and fifth in the North Central Region with an average team score of 194.275, including a high of 194.600. As a team, the Aggies are 27th in the nation on vault (48.763), 31st on bars (48.475), 45th on beam (48.200) and 25th on floor (48.838).
 
Individually, senior Madison Ward-Sessions is tied for 20th nationally on floor (9.887), tied for 40th on vault (9.825) and tied for 48th in the all-around (38.975). Sophomore Leighton Varnadore is tied for 56th in the nation in the all-around (38.875), while fellow sophomore Autumn DeHarde is tied for 74th nationally on floor (9.825).
 
With her three individual titles (beam, floor, all-around) against BYU last Friday night, Ward-Sessions now has 27 career titles to rank ninth all-time in school history. Against the Cougars, the native of Rexburg, Idaho, captured the beam crown with a career-high 9.800, won floor with a 9.875 and took top honors in the all-around with a personal-best 39.225.
 
For her efforts against the Cougars, Ward-Sessions was tabbed the MRGC Gymnast and Floor Specialist of the Week.
 
Ward-Sessions now has 16 career floor titles, which is tied for third in school history and just three shy of tying the school record of 19 set by Michelle Pohl (1983-86). Furthermore, Ward-Sessions' five career titles on bars is tied for 12th all-time in school history and one shy of breaking into the top 10.
 
BYU is ranked 16th in the nation and third in the North Central Region with an average team score of 195.525. The Cougars rank 11th nationally on vault (49.000), 22nd on bars (48.850), tied for 22nd on beam (48.713) and 18th on floor (49.963).
 
Fans can follow the Aggie gymnastics program at twitter.com/USUGymnastics, on Facebook at Utah State Gymnastics, and on Instagram at USUGymnastics. Fans can also follow the USU athletic program at twitter.com/USUAthletics or on Facebook at UtahStateAthletics.