Gymnastics Hosts No. 7 Utah On Sunday
March 8, 2000
THIS WEEK: The No. 21 Oregon State gymnastics team (10-5) hosts No. 7 Utah on Sunday, March 12 in the Precision Cuts Grand Finale, OSU's final regular season home meet. The meet begins at 2 p.m. in Gill Coliseum.
TICKETS: Reserved seats tickets for the Oregon State/Utah meet are available for 10 dollars. General admission prices are six dollars for adults and four dollars for senior citizens and youth (HS and under). OSU students are admitted free with a sports pass or for one dollar without a sports pass.
MEET TO BE TELEVISED: Sunday's meet between Oregon State/Utah will be televised on FOX Sports Net (Ch. 25 in Corvallis) on a tape delayed basis. Bob Akamian and Judy Corwin will call the action. The meet will be replayed at 8 p.m., Monday, March 13.
BEAVERS IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS: OSU moved up to 21st in the national rankings this week, with an RQS (Regional Qualifying Score) of 194.485. 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 10th as a team on floor exercise, 14th on vault, 17th on bars and 25th on beam. The Beavers also have two vaulters ranked in the individual rankings. Lara Degenhardt is tied for 20th with an RQS of 9.855, while Katrina Severin is tied for 22nd nationally with a 9.845 RQS.
OREGON STATE VS. UTAH: OSU is just 5-23 all-time against Utah, but the Beavers did defeat the Utes in dual meet action last season. OSU posted a 197.325-196.700 victory over Utah at Gill Coliseum last year. The Beavers set school records on vault (49.475) and beam (49.375) to lift them to victory. Lara Degenhardt placed first on vault with a career-high 9.975, and the Beavers got three other scores of 9.85 or better on the event. Corrie Young scored a career-best 9.925 on beam to tie for second on that event. OSU also got a then-career-high of 9.90 on floor from Jerra Lopez.
LAST WEEK'S COMPETITION: OSU turned in a 196.975 to upset No. 5 Nebraska (196.800) and then-No. 10 BYU (194.975) at the Shanico Inn-vitational last week. OSU's score was a season-high and the third best in school history. The Beavers trailed Nebraksa by .075 entering the final rotation, and OSU responded with a school record 49.575 on floor to overtake the Cornhuskers. Annie Campbell and Jerra Lopez tied for first with career-highs of 9.95 on floor, while Tanya Ricioli added a career-best 9.925 to aid in the record-setting rotation. Campbell was first on beam with a career-high 9.90, and she placed second in the all-around with a personal best 39.325. Lara Degenhardt tied her career-best with a 9.975 to win vault, and Katrina Severin placed second with a career-best 9.95 vault.
ANOTHER VAULT, ANOTHER VICTORY FOR DEGENHARDT: Lara Degenhardt is ranked 20th in the nation on vault and has a team-best average of 9.822 on the event. She has scored a 9.825 or better at the last five meets, highlighted by a career-high 9.975 last week. Degenhardt has placed first on vault four times this season, including at last week's Shanico Inn-vitational, giving her 18 vault titles in 33 collegiate meets. She's won floor at one meet this season and has scored a 9.80 or better at five meets, with a season-best of 9.90 three times. She is averaging 9.575 for the year, although that does include falls at two meets. Degenhardt has also competed on bars at the last four meets, with a season-best 9.725 two weeks ago. She was the 1999 Pac-10 floor champion, scoring a perfect 10.0 at the conference meet. 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 POSTING IMPRESSIVE NUMBERS AS A ROOKIE: Annie Campbell has been outstanding as a rookie all-arounder this season. She's scored career-highs of 9.90 or better on three events (vault, beam and floor) and last week she posted a career-best 39.325 in the all-around competition. Campbell turned in a career-high 9.95 to place first on floor last week, marking her fifth victory on that event this season. She's averaging a 9.789 on floor and has scored a 9.80 or better in seven of nine meets. She scored a career-high 9.90 on beam to place first on that event last week, and she scored a 9.90 on vault against Arizona on Feb. 11. Her best bars mark is 9.775, set two weeks ago. She has scored 39.00 or better as an all-arounder at four meets, with an average score of 38.544.
RICIOLI POSTS TWO CAREER-BESTS DESPITE INJURY: Tanya Ricioli turned in career bests on floor (9.925) and vault (9.875) at the Shanico Inn-vtiational last week. The all-arounder did not compete on the other two events last week. She suffered sprained ulnar collateral ligament in her right thumb nearly a month ago and has been limited since then. In four meets since the injury, she has competed on vault four times, floor three times and beam once, but she will be unable to compete on bars for the rest of the year. Ricioli has the team's third best average on vault (9.756) and has scored a 9.80 or better at four meets. She also has the team's third best average on floor (9.775), with six scores of 9.825 or better. Her top score on beam is 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.
SEVERIN ONE OF OSU'S MOST CONSISTENT GYMNASTS: Katrina Severin is the only Beaver gymnast to average 9.725 or better on three different events this season. She holds the team's best average on beam (9.725), is second on vault (9.768) and third on floor (9.775). She has hit every routine but one this season, when she recorded a rare miss on vault to score a 9.20 two weeks ago. Severin is ranked 22nd in the nation on vault and has scored a 9.80 or better in six of the seven meets she's competed on that event. Last week she scored a career-high 9.95 on vault, and she also turned in season-highs of 9.85 on beam and floor last week.
BYCHOWSKI ONE OF BEST ON BARS, BEAM: Stephanie Bychowski continues to lead the Beavers on bars and beam this season. She is averaging a team-best 9.750 on bars, highlighted by a career-high 9.925 to place first against Stanford two weeks ago. She's averaged 9.875 on the event at the last five meets, and she has won the event three times this season. Bychowski has also competed on beam in all nine meets this year, and her average of 9.653 is second best on the squad. She's scored a 9.825 at the last two meets and had a career-high 9.85 in the season opener. She's scored a 9.75 or better five times this year and has won the event twice. Bychowski was an All-Pac-10 pick on bars last year.
LOPEZ PUTTING UP SOLID NUMBERS: Jerra Lopez has been a solid contributor for OSU on bars and floor at the last six meets. She scored a career-high 9.95 to place first on floor at the Shanico Inn-vitational last week, pushing her season-best average to a team-best 9.842 on that event. Her average of 9.70 on bars is second on the team, and she's scored a 9.80 or better on that event at the last four meets. Lopez, who competed as an all-arounder in three meets as a freshman, has made the vault lineup five times this year, with a season-best 9.775 at last week's meet. She has yet to compete on beam this year. She was voted the team's Rookie of the Year last season.
TAYLOR HAS BEST MEET OF THE YEAR LAST WEEK: Annette Taylor scored season-highs on both of her events at the Shanico Inn-vitational last week. She scored a 9.850 on beam and tied her season-best with a 9.825 on bars, marking the first time this season that she's scored a 9.80 on both events at the same meet. Her averages on bars (9.675) and beam (9.629) are both third best on the team.
HEAD COACH TANYA CHAPLIN: Tanya Chaplin is in her third season as head coach of the OSU gymnastics program. Her career record is 28-14 for the regular season and 43-22 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.
PACIFIC-10 CHAMPIONSHIPS TO BE TELEVISED: FOX Sports Net will televise the Pac-10 Championship meet on a delayed basis. The competition will be held at 5 p.m. PST on March 18 at Arizona State, with the replay airing at 11 a.m. on Saturday, March 25.
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. The OSU ticket office phone number is 1-800-GO-BEAVS.
