In The Gym with Ashley Houghting
April 3, 2007
By any measure, sophomore Ashley Houghting is having one of the best seasons by a Husky gymnast in recent memory. Less than two full years into her collegiate career, Houghting has already blasted through the UW record books in the vault, winning 16 career vault titles to crush Klara Kudilkova's school record of 12. Houghting has also won five times on floor, once on beam and three times in the all-around to bring her career total to 25, just two shy of Washington's all-time career top-10, and putting her on pace for close to 50 career wins -- a total surpassed by just five UW gymnasts all-time. The Welland, Ontario, native took her season to new heights last week when she captured a share of Washington's first Pac-10 title since 2004, scoring a 9.950 on vault to match UCLA's Tasha Schwikert. Houghting's effort improved her national vault ranking to No. 5 entering next week's NCAA West Regional meet at Berkeley, where she and her UW teammates will attempt to qualify for UW's first NCAA Championships since 1998.
GoHuskies.com: You've had such a wonderful season; what has this year been like for you?
Ashley Houghting: "There's been a lot of changes this year. There's been a change in the coaching staff and our whole team outlook on everything has been a lot different. I just care so much about everyone on this team and I know everyone else does too. That makes me want to do really well. It's a lot easier to go into meets with confidence. The way we've been training has really helped."
GH: You've scored a lot of career bests this season, what keeps you motivated to keep getting better?
Houghting: "I just want to get better. I would love to get a 10.0 on vault or floor or beam. Or, you never know, maybe even bars one day. Every meet I walk into, I think `Maybe this will be the meet.' I know I can hit my routines perfectly on the three events, and we're working on bars. That event is getting better, little by little. It's finally at a 10.0 start value, which is good, but I still have a wimpy dismount."
GH: What's your favorite event to compete in?
Houghting: I love vault and floor. I don't know if I could pick between them. I like vault because it's quick. You run, you vault, you stick, you're done. And in the floor exercise, I'm having a lot more fun his year. I've always liked to tumble because it comes easy for me. But this year I'm having a lot more fun with the dancing. And it's fun to see your teammates smile and laugh at you. We tease each other, it's fun. It's a lot more entertaining for me to do a floor routine now."
GH: How is the team feeling going into the postseason?
Houghting: "We're feeling good. There's little ups and downs in everything, but that comes with sports. We feel like we haven't really peaked yet. We know we can do better than we've been doing. At Regionals, you never know what could happen. There's a chance we could make it to Nationals; we have to hit, and hope that some other teams don't."
GH: How did the win over SPU help the team at the end of the season?
Houghting: "A win always feels great, and a win's a win. But they were ahead of us after the first rotation because we had a rough time on the bars and that fired me right up. I did not want to lose. I said `No, this isn't going to happen.' We had to be careful, but we pulled it back together and had our best floor set that we've had all year."
GH: The team started out the year scoring around 193.000, then moved up to 194s and even 195.80. How did that feel?
Houghting: "[The 195.80 vs. OSU/SPU] was so exciting. That meet wasn't the greatest meet for me, actually. That was our last home meet. I didn't get a very good vault score, I didn't do well on bars or beam, and I stepped out of bounds on the floor routine. I'm always pretty hard on myself, though, if I don't get the 9.9s I expect. But it was still really really exciting. I had to step back and remind myself that it's not only up to me. My team has my back, and it shows. That meet proved that it didn't just depend on me. It was our highest score of the year."
GH: Because you're only a sophomore, what are you looking forward to in the next couple of years?
Houghting: Just to see where this team is going to go. I have the greatest feeling about it. Jo loves to give us talks before and after every meet. I love how excited she is about it. Just the look in her face when we talk about recruiting is great. Where she has prepared to take the program makes me so excited. David and Shanna, too, have been a great coaching team. I have just fallen back in love with the sport. It's just so much fun right now. I cannot wait to get out of class every day because I just want to get to the gym. There's a lot of love and caring in the atmosphere, and it makes us all want to do better."
GH: What's your favorite part about being a Husky?
Houghting: "The team that I'm on, this great group of girls. I just love the team that I'm on right now. My favorite part about being a Husky and about UW is gymnastics."
GH: Thanks, Ashley, and good luck to you and the GymDawgs are Regionals!
