A week after starting its season off in sunny Cancun, Mexico, the BYU gymnastics team made its home debut at the Smith Fieldhouse in chilly Provo on Friday hosting No. 9 Oregon State.

The Beavers (3-1) finished with a score of 194.550 while the young Cougars (0-4) ended the night with a score of 188.975.

Mandi Rodriguez and Jami Lanz led a deep Oregon State squad that took control from the start by posting its best score of the night on the uneven bars with 48.875.

Things got rough for the inexperienced Cougars before the meet even began. Freshman Holland Davis, who was scheduled to appear in three of the four events, tweaked her ankle during vault warmups and was unable to participate in the meet.

Despite the loss of Davis, the Cougars were able to post season highs in the vault and floor exercise with scores of 47.875 and 47.050, respectively. On the uneven bars and balance beam, BYU scored 46.575 and 47.475, respectively.

For BYU head coach Brad Cattermole, Friday night was all about getting his young squad more experience and helping the girls perform better.

"Our goal tonight was to hit our routines," he said. "We're awfully young, which is leading to silly mistakes, but we're a lot better team than what we showed tonight."

To say the Cougars are young might be the understatement of the millennium.

The 18-member squad is void of seniors and includes 10 freshmen. One of those freshmen, Emiko Ono, made her career debut Friday night.

"I was really nervous," she said beaming. "But I was also really excited."

Fellow freshman Krysten Koval, who made her debut last week in Cancun but was performing for the first time in front of the Cougar faithful, said performing was a dream come true.

"Words cannot describe how excited I was," she said. "I've wanted this since I was like seven, and the home crowd gave us so much adrenaline."

Despite having an inexperienced team, Cattermole said he has been pleased with his team so far.

"Not having those seasoned routines hurts us," he said. "But this team is really fun to work with because they work hard and never give up."

The young Cougars will get an opportunity to gain a little more experience when they travel to San Jose State next week for another meet.

• BYU/UVU track: At Provo, the first day of the indoor track season was the best in recent memory for the BYU men's and women's teams as they competed at home in the Cougar Indoor Invitational, which featured athletes from BYU, Utah, UVU, Weber State and Southern Utah at the Smith Fieldhouse.¬ ¬ 

Senior All-American Amy Menlove led the way for the Cougars taking first in the pentathlon (4,048 pts), while fellow All-American Mindy Neeley-McClurkin finished second (3,823 pts), closely followed by teammate Mindy Robins (3,324 pts).

Sophomore Deezba Whaley won the weight throw with a career-best 57 feet, 0.25 inches.

The Cougar men also fared well.

"The key in this sport is to just get a little better each time," said BYU men's coach Mark Robison. "It's important to just get going and then each week have incremental changes."

Junior All-American Leif Arrhenius surpassed his past marks in the shot put and weight throw, winning both events with throws of 60-2.5 and 65-7.5, respectively.

Daniel Lawson was second in the shot put (56-7.25) and Oliver Whaley second in the weight throw (53-7).

Seniors Robert Low, Brad Ellertson and Whitney Neeves swept the top three spots in the pole vault. Low won with a 17-0.75. In the heptathlon, Philip Bettis, Meelis Kosk and Brett Birkland are in the top three spots with scores of 2,980 points, 2.925 and 2,637, respectively.

UVU also got off to a good start.

UVU junior Tiera Zaugg broke the school record by 298 points (her own from her freshman year) in the women's pentathlon and had four personal records out of the five events as she finished placing fifth. Freshmen Nicole Knight (second, shot put, 43-5.25), Levi Ball (sixth, pole vault, 15-1) and Michael McPherson (fifth, heptathlon) also showed well for UVU.

The Cougar Invitational continues today beginning at 10 a.m.

• UVU men's basketball: The Utah Valley University men's basketball team (7-6) hosts a rematch against Binghamton University (10-4) of the America East Conference today at 7 p.m. in the McKay Center.

The Bearcats got the better of the Wolverines in the first meeting between the two teams in November, when the Wolverines went on the road for the first time and lost their first game of the season, 73-66.

Utah Valley currently ranks No. 9 in the country in free-throw percentage at 77.8 (207-for-266).

Individually, Wolverine senior guard and team captain Ryan Toolson's 24.2 points per game is the fifth-best in the country.

Binghamton is currently on a six-game winning streak and has lost only two games since first facing off against Utah Valley. The Bearcats have a 4-3 record on the road, and are led by junior forward D.J. Rivera who averages 21.6 points per game.

The game will be broadcast on 1400 AM with Steve Watts at the mike.

• BYU women's basketball: The BYU women's basketball team (10-2) opens Mountain West Conference play today when the Cougars host Colorado State (3-8) at 3 p.m. at the Marriott Center.

The game will be broadcast live on BYU-TV.

The Cougars are led by forward Shawnee Slade, who averages 11.8 points per game, and guard Mindy Nielson, who chips in 11.3 ppg.

• UVU wrestling: Utah Valley University's wrestling team will showcase its talents today at home as they will host the 2009 UVU Open beginning at 9 a.m. in the Shurian Family Activity Center.

"We are very excited to host the second annual UVU Open," UVU coach Greg Williams said. "It is a great opportunity for our wrestlers to be at home and compete in front of their friends and family members. It is also a great opportunity to be hosting such great programs and have them see what a wonderful campus we truly have."

Other schools that will wrestle at the UVU Open include grapplers from Arizona State, Boise State, Wyoming, Iowa State, Cal State Bakersfield, Western State, Western Wyoming, Northwest Wyoming, and Menlo College.

There will be about 120 wrestlers competing at the open resulting in around 12-man brackets for each weight division.

• UVU women's basketball: The Utah Valley women's basketball team travels to Texas-Pan American to battle its future Great West Conference rival today at 6 p.m. The game can be heard live at wolverinegreen.com.

The Wolverines (6-7) are led by 24.5 points per game from senior Robyn Fairbanks. She is second in the country in scoring, while Julie McMurray, averaging an even 20.0 points per contest, ranks 18th.

• BYU football: Tickets for the recently announced BYU vs. Oklahoma football game being played at the Dallas Cowboys new stadium on Sept. 5, 2009, are expected to go on sale in March.

"We have started receiving inquiries from BYU fans about purchasing tickets to our season opener with Oklahoma next September," BYU Marketing Director David Almodova said. "We are excited about the opportunity fans will have to attend this historic event in the new Dallas Cowboys stadium. We expect to announce the ticket purchasing plans in early March after the 2009 Mountain West Conference football schedule is released."

Once on sale, tickets to the BYU-Oklahoma game will be available for purchase through the Marriott Center Ticket Office and BYUTickets.com. Cougar Club members will have priority purchasing opportunities before they go on sale to the general public.