The Washington Huskies are accustomed to long odds. After their performance at regionals, however, the self-described underdogs might need to consider rebranding.
A fortunate draw allowed them to skip an anticipated play-in meet. Still, the 27th-ranked Huskies were the decisive underdogs heading into the first session of the Los Angeles Regional against No. 5 Utah, No. 12 Auburn, and No. 21 Southern Utah.
Washington led the Flippin’ Birds by the slimmest of margins after two rotations, with Utah and Auburn still comfortably ahead by several tenths each. Early in the third rotation, however, second year head coach Jen Llewellyn noted a shift in the meet’s momentum:
“We try to make a point of not looking at scores throughout the meet because we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, but I did happen to see one of the falls [from Auburn] on bars,” said Llewllyn. “I continued to tell the team to just stay in the moment because you never know what’s going to happen.”
Further stacking the odds against the Huskies was lacking key all-arounder Skylar Killough-Wilhelm due to an unforeseen health issue. Killough-Wilhelm has been a leader for Washington all season, and fortunately, Llewellyn was quick to emphasize that she is, “thankfully, OK.”
“We’ve…
