No. 11 Beavers Set for Dual in the Desert

Friday, February 8

Tucson, AZ

6:00 PM

Oregon State

Arizona

Photo by: Dave Nishitani/Oregon State Athletics

February 05, 2019 | Women's Gymnastics

OSU at Arizona notes

By: Athletic Communications

ON TAP
The 11th-ranked Oregon State gymnastics team (4-2) travels for the first of two February jaunts to the desert to take on No. 25 Arizona (3-4) at the McKale Center in Tucson this Friday at 7 p.m. MST.

VIDEO & LIVE RESULTS
• The meet will stream live and can be found by visiting the gymnastics schedule page at osubeavers.com.
• Live results will be also available for the meet and can be found at arizonalivestats.com.
• To access live stats, via your computer, smartphone, or tablet, visit osubeavers.com.

QUICK STICKS
• All four of OSU's lineups are ranked among the top 25 in the nation. The floor lineup is the highest ranked for the Beavers at No. 5 (49.281, season average), beam is next at No. 10 (48.969), vault is at No. 16 (48.963) and bars ranks 21st (48.844).
• Oregon State has 'hit' 91 out of 96 (94.8%) routines in 2019.
• Oregon State opened the season on the road for the third straight season ... the Beavers now have a 5-0 record in those road season-openers.
• Ten of OSU's 15 regular season opponents on the 2019 schedule are ranked in this week's Top 36, including three among the top five.
• Oregon State hosts NCAA Regionals April 4-6. It is the first time OSU has hosted the regional round since 2013 ... this year's regional will be the first season with the new format that includes three days (four meets) of competition.
• Seventeen OSU gymnasts earned a 3.0 GPA or better during fall term - 11 of those were 3.5 or above including two 4.0s. The Beavers represent seven different colleges among their majors and two study in the Honors College.

LAST WEEK VS UCLA
• Oregon State scored 197.450, tying the sixth-highest score in school history, a score that only four teams (Oklahoma, Florida, UCLA and Georgia) have topped this season.
• OSU scored 49+ points on all four events for the first time in 2019, including season-highs on each apparatus.
• The Beavers registered a 49.600 on the floor exercise, missing the school-record by just .100, and besting the Bruins' top-ranked floor lineup.
• OSU gymnasts recorded or tied 12 career-marks against UCLA.
• Sophomore Kaitlyn Yanish tallied a career-best 9.975 on the floor to win her first event title of the season ... she added a personal-best 9.875 on the vault.
• Freshman Madi Dagen established career-highs on all three of her events with 9.925s on beam and floor and a 9.875 on the vault.
• Senior Mary Jacobsen nailed her vault, scoring a career-high 9.950, to win the event title.
• Junior Isis Lowery notched career-highs on floor (9.95) and bars (9.90) against the Bruins.

THE WILDCATS
• Arizona is a much improved squad, ranked No. 25 in 2019 after missing out on regionals in 2018.
• The Cats are 3-4 on the season and are coming off a loss against Utah at Salt Lake City, 197.075-195.400.
• Arizona knocked off then-No. 12 California 195.975-194.450 in Tucson two weeks ago.
• Junior Maddi Leydin is the Wildcats' only all-around performer thus far in 2019 and posted a season-high 39.150 against Washington last month.
• Arizona is led by second-year head coach John Court, after serving as an assistant coach with the Wildcats for 19 years.

GETTING BY
• Oregon State continues to get by despite missing several routines due to injury ... McKenna Singley (three events) missed the UCLA meet due to injury but could return this week in Arizona ... Destinee Davis, who finished 2018 in three lineups, made her 2019 debut Saturday against UCLA performing in the beam lineup ... Sabrina Gill, who was an all-arounder six times in 2018, has battled illness and injury early in the season, returned to the beam lineup against UCLA from a two week absence ... Lena Greene, who was featured in the vault lineup last season, has not been in the competition lineup yet in 2019, made her debut on the bars against UCLA and was injured (finger) on the routine. She is considered week-to-week ... Alyssa Minyard, who performed in the bars and beam lineups most of the season last year, will miss the 2019 season due to injury.

RETURNING FOR 2019
• The Beavers return 22 out of 24 routines from the 2018 NCAA Regionals lineup. Both graduated routines by (Dani Dessaints and Shireen Khamedoost) were on the uneven bars.
• OSU had two gymnasts perform as all-arounders at various times in 2018 and both, Sabrina Gill and McKenna Singley, return.
• Four walk-ons made significant contributions to the squad in 2018 - Alyssa Minyard was a regular in the bars and beam lineups, Maela Lazaro was a consistent bright spot in the beam lineup, Lena Greene was a key component in the back half of the vault lineup and Niya Mack filled in several times on the floor exercise. As a group, the foursome hit 38 out of 41 routines.
• In addition, to 13 contributors returning, two others - Lacy Dagen and Colette Yamaoka - performed a total of 11 exhibitions for the Beavers as well.
• Kaitlyn Yanish earned Pac-12 second team honors on the floor exercise and was named an NACGC/W Regular Season All-American on floor in her first season at OSU.
• There were several notable improvements by previously unsung gymnasts in 2018 ... Destinee Davis contributed one routine as a freshman in 2017 worked her way into three lineups by season's end converting 21 out of 22 routines as a sophomore ... Alyssa Minyard, who didn't perform a single exhibition as a freshman in 2017, was a regular in the bars and beam lineups this season hitting 18-19 routines ... Maela Lazaro, who earned one exhibition at the end of the '17 season, jumped into the beam lineup in the season's third meet with a 9.90 and became a fixture in the lineup ... Lena Greene, who missed 2017 due to injury returned to make her debut at Washington with a 9.90 on the vault and became a mainstay in the back end of the vault lineup the rest of the way this year ... Halli Briscoe returned from her own injury late in the 2018 season to make her college debut on the bars where she too became a key to the lineup.

THE ROSTER
Here are some quick hitters about the 2019 Oregon State gymnastics roster:
• The Beavers have three seniors on the team (Mariana Colussi-Pelaez, Mary Jacobsen and McKenna Singley). The trio had combined to perform 224 routines in their career entering the season.
• There were four additions to the squad this fall with the arrivals of freshmen Leah Bivrell, Madi Dagen, Alex McClung and Kristina Peterson.
• Thirteen of the 21 gymnasts on the 2019 team competed in at least one meet for the Beavers last season
• Redshirt junior Lacy Dagen and sophomore Lexie Gonzales as well as freshmen Madi Dagen and Kristina Peterson made their Beaver debuts in the season opener at Illinois ... Sophomore Colette Yamaoka made her career debut against Utah.
• The Beavers have three gymnasts that hail from the state of Oregon - Lena Greene (Tigard), Jaime Law (Corvallis) and Alex McClung (Salem).
• OSU also has three gymnasts from outside the United State - Mariana Colussi-Pelaez and Sabrina Gill (Oakville, Ontario, Canada) and Isis Lowery (Melbourne, Australia).
• The Beavers return 22 out of 24 routines from the 2018 NCAA Regionals lineup. Both graduated routines by (Dani Dessaints and Shireen Khamedoost) were on the uneven bars.

A LOOK BACK AT 2018
• OSU advanced to the postseason for the 44th consecutive season.
• The Beavers traveled to Raleigh, N.C. for NCAA Regionals in April as the third seed. Oregon State counted two falls, the first of the season, on the balance beam in the final rotation and finished sixth in meet. OSU's final ranking was No. 27.
• All four of OSU's lineups were ranked among the top 25 in the nation. The floor lineup was the highest ranked for the Beavers at No. 7 (49.380 regional qualifying score), vault was 18th (49.135), beam was also ranked 18th (49.165) and bars finished at No. 21 (49.200).
• Oregon State 'hit' 274 out of 288 (95.1%) routines in 2018.
• Kaitlyn Yanish (FX) earned NACGC/W Regular Season Second Team All-America. Yanish was also named to the Pac-12 All-Conference Second Team on the floor exercise as a freshman in 2018.
• Dani Dessaints was named as one of 10 finalists for the AAI Award, annually given to the top senior gymnast in the nation.
• Oregon State went an undefeated 5-0 at Gill Coliseum in 2018 including four wins over Top 25 teams - No. 23 Stanford, No. 12 Arizona State, No. 24 Arizona and No. 21 BYU.

LOADING UP FOR 2020
In November, three gymnasts signed the National Letters of Intent to join the Oregon State gymnastics program for the 2019-20 academic year. Kayla Bird (Chandler, Ariz.), Jenna Domingo (Honolulu, Hawai'i) and Jane Poniewaz (Henderson, Nev.) are scheduled to enroll at Oregon State this coming summer ... In addition, 2018 signee Jade Carey (Phoenix, Ariz.), who has deferred her enrollment this year to train for the U.S. National Team, plans to attend OSU in the future. Carey earned a pair of silver medals for Team USA at the 2017 World Championships.

CLEAR BAGS
As a ticketed event, Oregon State gymnastics meets now adhere to the Athletic Department's Clear Bag Policy, which was implemented in the spring as an additional security measure and to provide fans a more consistent and efficient entry process. For more information on the policy, click here.