Gymnastics Heads To ASU For Pacific-10 Championships
March 16, 2000
THIS WEEK: The No. 24 Oregon State gymnastics team (10-6) joins the six other Pac-10 schools at the Pacific-10 Championships on Saturday, March 18 at Wells Fargo Arena at Arizona State. The meet is scheduled to begin at 5:00 p.m. PST.
PACIFIC-10 CHAMPIONSHIPS TO BE TELEVISED: FOX Sports Net will televise the Pac-10 Championship meet on a delayed basis, with the replay airing at 11 a.m. on Saturday, March 25. Bill MacDonald and Kathy Johnson-Clarke will call the action.
BEAVERS IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS: OSU dropped back to 24th in the national rankings this week, despite recording its third best score of the season last week. OSU has an RQS (Regional Qualifying Score) of 194.565. The RQS is based on a team's top three road scores and top three other scores (home or away), of those six scores, the highest is dropped and the remaining five are averaged to calculate the RQS. OSU is also ranked 12th as a team on floor exercise, 17th on vault, and 25th on bars. The Beavers also have two vaulters ranked in the individual rankings. Katrina Severin is 23rd with an RQS of 9.860, while Lara Degenhardt is 25th with an RQS of 9.855.
ROTATION ORDER: OSU will begin the competition with a bye before competing on floor in the second rotation. The rotation order for the meet is as follows:
Rot. Bye Vault Bars Bye Beam Bye Floor I UW Cal ASU UCLA Ariz. OSU Stan. II Stan. UW Cal ASU UCLA Ariz. OSU III OSU Stan. UW Cal ASU UCLA Ariz. IV Ariz. OSU Stan. UW Cal ASU UCLA V UCLA Ariz. OSU Stan. UW Cal ASU VI ASU UCLA Ariz. OSU Stan. UW Cal VII Cal ASU UCLA Ariz. OSU Stan. UW
OREGON STATE AT THE PAC-10 CHAMPIONSHIPS: OSU has claimed four Pac-10 team titles in the 13-year history of the Pac-10 Championships. The Beavers last claimed the conference title in 1996, and last year OSU placed second with a school record 197.400 score. Lara Degenhardt was crowned the Pac-10 champion on floor with a perfect 10.0 at the 1999 meet, and OSU also took top individual honors on vault, bars and beam last year. OSU has captured a total of 22 individual Pac-10 titles over the years.
LAST WEEK'S COMPETITION: The Beavers picked up their third best score of the season against Utah last week but it wasn't enough for a win as the Utes came away with a 196.525-195.200 victory. OSU had to count falls on both beam and bars, while the Utes had to count one fall. The Beavers got first-place finishes from Katrina Severin and Elizabeth Jillson. Severin won vault with a 9.90, while Jillson recorded a career-best 9.925 to capture her first-ever victory on bars. Annie Campbell turned in a career-high 39.375 in the all-around to place second. Campbell and Severin tied for second on floor with 9.875 scores. Campbell and Stephanie Bychowski also tied for second on beam with 9.875 scores.
DEGENHARDT LOOKING FOR SECOND PAC-10 TITLE: Lara Degenhardt, last year's Pac-10 champion on floor, will shoot for another conference title in 2000. She is ranked 25th in the nation on vault and has a team-best average of 9.828 on the event. She has scored a 9.825 or better at the last six meets, highlighted by a career-high 9.975 last week. Degenhardt has placed first on vault four times this season, giving her 18 vault titles in 34 collegiate meets. She's won floor at one meet this season and has scored a 9.80 or better at six meets, with a season-best of 9.90 three times. She is averaging 9.603 for the year, although that does include falls at two meets. Degenhardt has also competed on bars at the last five meets, with a season-best 9.725. Degenhardt scored a perfect 10.0 on floor at the 1999 conference meet, and she also qualified for the NCAA Championships as an event specialist on floor last year. She has been named to the All-Pac-10 Team as a vaulter two years in a row and was All-Pac-10 on floor last year as well.
CAMPBELL GOES 39+ FOR THIRD STRAIGHT MEET: Annie Campbell has been outstanding as a rookie all-arounder this season. She's scored 39.0 or better five times this year, including at the last three meets. In OSU's last outing, she recorded a career-high 39.375 (vs. Utah on 3/12). She scored 9.875 on floor and beam, added a 9.825 on vault and posted a career-best 9.80 on bars at that meet. She has career-highs of 9.90 or better on three events (vault, beam and floor). Campbell has won floor five times this season and is averaging a 9.798 on that event. She has scored a 9.80 or better in eight of 10 meets. She has scored a 9.90 on better on floor four times and has scored a 9.90 on beam and vault once this year. She is averaging 38.628 as an all-arounder.
JILLSON PICKS UP FIRST VICTORY: Elizabeth Jillson recorded a career-high 9.925 on bars against Utah to record her first collegiate victory. Her previous career-high was a 9.85. Jillson came into the season still rehabbing from ACL surgery and was unable to perform a true dismount for the first half of the season. Once her knee was able to handle the more difficult diiismount, her scores have risen. She's scored a 9.80 or better at the last three meets, but is averaging just 9.483 as a result of her early season routines.
BYCHOWSKI NOTCHES CAREER-HIGH ON BEAM: Stephanie Bychowski continues to lead the Beavers on bars and beam this season. She has the team's best average on both events. Last week against Utah, she recorded a career-high 9.875 on to beam to place second on that event. Her average on beam is 9.675, with five scores of 9.80 or better. She is averaging a team-best 9.763 on bars, highlighted by a career-high 9.925 to place first against Stanford on Feb. 25. She's averaged 9.875 on the event at the last six meets, and she has won the event three times this season. She has won beam twice as well. Bychowski was an All-Pac-10 pick on bars last year.
SEVERIN ONE OF OSU'S MOST CONSISTENT GYMNASTS: Katrina Severin is the only Beaver gymnast to average 9.65 or better on three different events this season. She's averaging 9.784 on vault, 9.788 on floor and 9.657 on beam. Severin is ranked 23nd in the nation on vault and has scored a 9.80 or better in seven of the eight meets she's competed on that event. Two weeks ago, she scored a career-high 9.95 on vault, and she's won the event twice this year. She's scored 9.80 or better on four floor routines and two beam routines this year as well.
RICIOLI LIMITED TO VAULT, FLOOR: Tanya Ricioli has been limited to two events since injuring the ulnar collateral ligament in her right thumb in early February. Despite the injury, she is still averaging a 9.748 on vault (third best on the team) and 9.769 on floor (fourth on the team). Two weeks ago, she turned in career bests on floor (9.925) and vault (9.875). In the five meets since the injury, she has competed on vault five times, floor four times and beam once, but she will be unable to compete on bars for the rest of the year. She has scored a 9.80 or better on floor at six meets. She has scored a 9.80 or better on vault at four meets. Her top score on beam was 9.775, and her best bars score was a 9.825. Prior to the injury she was averaging 38.640 in five meets as an all-arounder, with a season-best of 39.200. In those five meets, she had won eight individual titles, but she has not claimed a individual event title since then. She was named Pac-10 Gymnast of the Week on Jan. 25 and was selected as OSU's Female Athlete of the Month for January.
LOPEZ EXPECTED TO COMPETE: Jerra Lopez is expected to be back in the lineup in her three events (vault, bars and floor) at the Pac-10 meet after a disappointing bar routine against Utah last week. During the routine, she had a major form break and her dismount went short and she hit the bar on the way down, bruising her right ankle. She was pulled from the floor lineup for that meet, but should be back on all three events this week. Prior to the Utah meet, Lopez had scored a 9.80 or better on bars at four straight meets and had scored 9.80 or better on five of six floor routines. She scored a career-high 9.95 to place first on floor at the Shanico Inn-vitational on March 3, and she has the team's top average on that event (9.842). She's averaging 9.588 on bars. Lopez, who competed as an all-arounder in three meets as a freshman, has also made the vault lineup at six meets, with a season-best 9.775 two weeks ago. She has yet to compete on beam this year. She was voted the team's Rookie of the Year last season.
BRUCH STEPS UP TO THE CHALLENGE: Marissa Bruch, who was scheduled to do an exhibition floor routine against Utah last week, was thrown into the official lineup after teammate Jerra Lopez went down with an injury on bars earlier in the meet. Bruch stepped up and responded to the pressure by scoring a career-high 9.825 on her floor routine. She also scored a 9.825 on floor at last year's Pac-10 Championships. Bruch has competed on floor at seven meets this year (including two exhibitions). She's averaging 9.682, with four scores of 9.70 or better.
HEAD COACH TANYA CHAPLIN: Tanya Chaplin is in her third season as head coach of the OSU gymnastics program. Her career record is 28-15 for the regular season and 43-23 including postseason competition. In 1999, Chaplin was named Pacific-10 Coach of the Year after the Beavers posted a 16-8 record in 1999 and finished second at the Pac-10 Championships, where OSU set a school record with a 197.400 score. She was an assistant coach at Washington for seven years before moving to OSU. Formerly Tanya Service, she was a six-time All-American and held six school records while competing for UCLA from 1986-89.
REGIONAL TICKETS ON SALE: Tickets for the NCAA Region 1 competition are available at 15 dollars for reserved and 8 dollars for general admission. The meet is scheduled for 6 p.m., Saturday, April 1 at Gill Coliseum.
