Beavers Open the Season at Pitt

Saturday, January 13

Pittsburgh, Pa.

3:00 PM

Oregon State

Pittsburgh

Photo by: Dave Nishitani/Oregon State Athletics

January 10, 2018 | Women's Gymnastics

WatchESPN Live Scoring OSU Meet Notes

By: Athletic Communications

THE MEET
Oregon State (0-0) opens the season with a three time zone, road trip across the country to face Pittsburgh (0-0) at 3 p.m. PT, Saturday at Fitzgerald Field House. The meet will stream on WatchESPN.com.

QUICKLY
Oregon State opens the season with back-to-back road meets for the second year in a row. Following their trip to the Keystone State, the Beavers will travel to Utah next week to face the Utes on Friday, Jan. 19 ... Eight out of OSU's 12 opponents on the 2018 schedule are ranked in the preseason Top 36 ... The Beavers are coming off a 19-win season the ended with an 11th-place finish at NCAA Championships ... Tanya Chaplin enters her 21st season as the Beavers' head coach and possesses a 23-17 record in season openers ... Oregon State returns one All-American, Dani Dessaints, who was an NACGC/W Regular Season All-American on the vault in 2017 ... Dessaints tied for the Pac-12 title on the vault (9.95) in 2017.

VS. PITTSBURGH
Oregon State and Pittsburgh have met just once prior to this Saturday. The Beavers came out on top in that meeting, 134.55-133.90, at the AIAW Championships hosted by Penn State in 1979 ... The last time these teams faced one another, OSU great Mary Ayotte-Law, the mother of current OSU gymnast Jaime Law, was a freshman for the Beavers.

ORANGE & BLACK EXHIBITION
The Beavers took the floor for the first time this season four weeks ago (Dec. 15) at the Orange & Black Exhibition. Three gymnasts - Destinee Davis, Sabrina Gill and Mary Jacobsen - performed in the all-around while three others - Savanna Force, Maela Lazaro and Kaitlyn Yanish - were featured on three events apiece.

A LOOK BACK
Oregon State got the 2017 campaign started on a strong foot with a 4-0 record to begin the month of January including a win at then-No. 8 Auburn in the season-opener. Fantastic seasons from Kaytianna McMillan and Madeline Gardiner led the Beavers to their highest ranking of the year at No. 8 entering the postseason. McMillan would earn Pac-12 Gymnast of the Year honors and Gardiner was named the conference's Scholar-Athlete as the Beavers finished second at the conference meet.
• Advanced to the postseason for the 43rd straight year ... the last time the Beavers failed to reach the postseason was 1974, when they were still competing in the AIAW.
• OSU finished second at the NCAA Champaign Regional earning a berth at NCAA Championships. The Beavers finished 11th at the championships in St. Louis.
• Finished tied for second (Utah) at Pac-12 Championships.
• Madeline Gardiner (BB) earned NACGC/W Regular Season First Team All-America. Kaytianna McMillan (FX, AA), Erika Aufiero (UB) and Dani Dessaints (V) received second team accolades.
• Kaytianna McMillan scored 39.400 in the all-around to win the NCAA Champaign Regional title. Dani Dessaints scored 9.925 on the vault and McMillan scored 9.875 on the floor exercise to secure regional titles as well.
• Dani Dessaints and Erika Aufiero each posted scores of 9.950 on the vault and uneven bars respectively to secure Pac-12 titles at the conference meet.
• Kaytianna McMillan was named as the Pac-12 Gymnast of the Year.
• Madeline Gardiner was selected as the Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete.
• Madeline Gardiner and Kaytianna McMillan were AAI Award finalists.
• Kaytianna McMillan (first team) and Madeline Gardiner (second team) earned Pac-12 All-Conference honors in the all-around. Dani Dessaints (V), Erika Aufiero (UB), Gardiner (BB) and McMillan (FX) were also first team and McMillan (V) and Mary Jacobsen (V) earned second team honors.
• Eleven OSU gymnasts received Pac-12 All-Academic honors; Mariana Colussi-Pelaez, Silvia Colussi-Pelaez, Madeline Gardiner, Shireen Khamedoost, Kaytianna McMillan and Taylor Ricci were first team honorees, while Dani Dessaints and McKenna Singley were named to the second team.
• Sixteen gymnasts were recognized as Scholastic All-Americans by the National Association of Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches/Women (NACGC/W): Halli Briscoe, Kaitlin Campbell, Mariana Colussi-Pelaez, Silvia Colussi-Pelaez, Dani Dessaints, Madeline Gardiner, Lena Greene, Mary Jacobsen, Megan Jimenez, Shireen Khamedoost, Jaime Law, Maela Lazaro, Kaytianna McMillan, Alyssa Minyard, Taylor Ricci and McKenna Singley.

THE ROSTER
Here are some quick hitters about the Oregon State gymnastics roster in 2018:
• There are only two seniors on the squad (Dani Dessaints and Shireen Khamedoost) who have combined to perform 74 career routines entering the season.
• There are six newcomers to the team this year (Savanna Force, Lexie Gonzales, Niya Mack, Colette Yamaoka and Kaitlyn Yanish are freshmen, and Lacy Dagen transferred to OSU in the offseason).
• Less than half of the roster competed in a meet for Oregon State last season (nine out of 19). Halli Briscoe, Lena Greene, Jaime Law, Maela Lazaro, and Alyssa Minyard are all seeking their first competition routines in addition to the five freshmen.
• Two of OSU's gymnast hail from the Beaver State - Lena Greene (Tigard) and Jaime Law (Corvallis) .
• Three OSU gymnasts are from outside of the United States - Mariana Colussi-Pelaez and Sabrina Gill are all from Canada, while Isis Lowery is from Australia.
• The Beavers return just nine out of 24 routines from the 2017 NCAA Championships lineup.
• Fifteen of the Beavers' 19 gymnasts earned a GPA of 3.0 or higher during fall term ... as a team, the Beavers earned a 3.4778 GPA in the fall.

WHICH WAY DO WE GO?
The Beavers, like every other team in the country, are seeking to qualify to the NCAA Championships and the Super Six. But to reach that goal teams must get through NCAA Regionals. In 2017, regionals will be held at Alabama, Minnesota, North Carolina State, Ohio State, Penn State and Utah. The top two finishers at each regional will advance to the NCAA Championships at the Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis, Mo.

CONFERENCE OF CHAMPIONS
The Pac-12 Conference had all eight of its teams ranked in the Top 36, which is the number of teams that qualify to NCAA Regionals, in the preseason coaches poll. Utah was ranked No. 5, No. 6 UCLA, No. 11 California, Oregon State is 12th, Washington is 15th, Stanford 18th, Arizona 26th and Arizona State ranked 31st.

LOADING UP FOR 2019
In November, three gymnasts signed the National Letters of Intent to join the Oregon State gymnastics program for the 2018-19 academic year. Leah Bivrell (Louisville, Colo.), Jade Carey (Phoenix, Ariz.) and Madi Dagen (Pleasanton, Calif.) are scheduled to enroll at Oregon State this coming summer ... Carey earned a pair of silver medals for Team USA at the 2017 World Championships ... Dagen's sister, Lacy, transferred from Florida to Oregon State during the offseason.