Beavers Hold On For Road Win in Season-Opener

Saturday, January 13

Pittsburgh, Pa.

3:00 PM

Oregon State

194.850

194.125

Pittsburgh

Photo by: Ralph Greene

January 13, 2018 | Women's Gymnastics

OSU at Pittsburgh Results

By: Athletic Communications

PITTSBURGH, Pa. – Sophomore Sabrina Gill tied for the all-around win and the Oregon State gymnastics team defeated Pittsburgh, 194.850-194.125, in their season-opener Saturday evening at Fitzgerald Field House.

It is the first career all-around title for Gill, in her first career all-around performance, with a score of 38.925. She added meet-high honors on uneven bars (9.775), was second on balance beam (9.800), tied for sixth on floor exercise (9.775) and was 11th on the vault (9.575).

"I'm pleased with tonight's outcome but clearly there is plenty of work to be done," head coach Tanya Chaplin said. "We had a very long day of travel yesterday due to delays but the team really focused in today. It's important for such a young team to show that mental fortitude and not let a little adversity get them entirely off course."

OSU's other event winners were Dani Dessaints, who posted the meet's top score on beam with a 9.85, Kaitlyn Yanish, who earned first place with a 9.875, the highest score on any event in the meet, and Mariana Colussi-Pelaez, who tied Gill for the bars title.

The Beavers' best rotation was the floor exercise. Trailing 97.350-97.225 at the halfway point, the Beavers moved to the floor. Yanish, a freshman, secured the event title with an impressive routine in the first meet of her career. However, she was aided by a strong lineup ahead of her that included solid performances from Mary Jacobsen (9.775), Gill (9.775), McKenna Singley (9.775) and Isis Lowery (9.750), who had the home crowd dancing along her during her routine. OSU posted its best event score of the night with a 48.950 on the floor.

OSU held on during the final rotation on the balance beam where the Beavers used a lineup that featured four gymnasts who weren't a regular part of the lineup in 2017, all of whom established career marks on Saturday.

Producing personal-bests were Yanish (9.725) on vault, Alyssa Minyard (9.725) on bars, Lowery (9.750), Singley (9.725), Minyard (9.550) and Yanish (9.050) on beam and on floor, Yanish (9.875) and Savanna Force (9.550).

Gill, who tied for the meet-high, and Singley each performed in the all-around for the first time at Oregon State. As a freshman in 2017, Gill performed mostly on vault and beam, while Singley was limited to the bars all season due to an ankle injury.

"We have a lot of routines to replace from last year and a pretty inexperienced squad. Tonight was a good first step for a lot of our gymnasts to begin growing in their new roles to make this team great. It was awesome to have Sabrina and McKenna perform in the all-around tonight, especially to have McKenna available to perform four routines, which just wasn't the case last year because of her injury."

Three OSU gymnasts – freshmen Savanna Force (floor) and Kaitlyn Yanish (vault, beam and floor), and sophomore Alyssa Minyard (bars and beam) – combined to perform six routines in their college debuts Saturday evening.

The Beavers, who needed 16 hours to traverse the country on Friday due to travel delays, will be back on the road next week in their Pac-12 opener at Utah Friday at 6 p.m. PT.

Team Scores: Oregon State 194.850; Pittsburgh 194.125.
All-Around: T1. Sabrina Gill (OSU), Haley Brechwald (PITT) 38.925; 3. Catie Conrad (PITT) 38.800. Other OSU Score: McKenna Singley 38.750.
Vault (48.500): 1. Haley Brechwald (PITT) 9.825; T2. Mary Jacobsen (OSU), Kensleigh Owens (PIT) 9.775. Other OSU Scores: Dani Dessaints 9.750; Kaitlyn Yanish 9.725; McKenna Singley 9.625; Shireen Khamedoost 9.625; Sabrina Gill 9.575 (Exhibition – Lena Greene 9.600).
Uneven Bars (48.725): T1. Mariana Colussi-Pelaez (OSU), Sabrina Gill (OSU), Catie Conrad (PIT), Haley Brechwald (PIT) 9.775. Other OSU Scores: Mary Jacobsen 9.750; Alyssa Minyard 9.725; McKenna Singley 9.700; Shireen Khamedoost 9.700 (Exhibition – Colette Yamaoka 9.600).
Balance Beam (48.675): 1. Dani Dessaints (OSU) 9.850; 2. Sabrina Gill (OSU) 9.800; 3. Catie Conrad (PITT) 9.775. Other OSU Scores: Isis Lowery 9.750; McKenna Singley 9.725; Alyssa Minyard 9.550; Kaitlyn Yanish 9.050 (Exhibition – Maela Lazaro 9.750).
Floor Exercise (48.950): 1. Kaitlyn Yanish (OSU) 9.875; 2. Haley Brechwald (PITT) 9.850; 3. Isis Lowery (OSU) 9.825. Other OSU Scores: Isis Lowery 9.825; Sabrina Gill 9.775; Mary Jacobsen 9.775; McKenna Singley 9.700; Savanna Force 9.550 (Exhibition – Niya Mack 9.525).