Gymnastics Puts Wrap on 2012 Season with Awards Banquet
May 1, 2012
CORVALLIS, Ore. -
The Oregon State gymnastics team, which finished 12th at the NCAA Championships just over a week ago, put the cap on another successful season with its annual season-end banquet Sunday. The annual event is an opportunity for the team and coaches to recognize and be recognized by family and boosters and to look back on the accomplishments of the past year.
Senior all-around competitor Leslie Mak received Most Valuable Gymnast honors for the second year in a row. Mak’s senior season was decorated with numerous awards including Pac-12 Gymnast of the Year making her the first athlete in conference history to garner the award in consecutive years. In addition, the Toronto, Ontario native earned second team All-America honors on balance beam and floor exercise in 2012 and was a finalist for the AAI Award given annually to the top senior gymnast in the nation. Mak established a career-high in the all-around scoring 39.675 at UC Davis – the second-highest score in OSU history. She finished her career with 53 event titles, fourth in OSU history, and added her third straight Pac-12 All-Academic Second Team honor.
Senior Stephanie McGregor and freshman Katelyn Ohlrich were awarded the team’s Outstanding Scholar. It is the fourth straight year that McGregor, who studies Bioengineering within OSU’s Honors College has earned the award. After missing the season due to an Achilles injury, McGregor, who hails from Calgary, Alberta, will return for her fifth-year in 2013 and will likely be in line for her fifth straight award a year from now. Ohlrich, a freshman from Bend, Ore., was a primary alternate on the vault and uneven bars early in the season and cracked the vault lineup against Stanford is studying Civil Engineering.
Hannah Casey and Melanie Jones were chosen as the Most Improved on the team. Casey, a sophomore from Portland, performed as the primary alternate on the uneven bars for nearly the entire 2011 campaign but returned in 2012 ready to perform in the competitive lineup. Casey led off the bars lineup in all 13 meets establishing a personal-best of 9.825, which she accomplished twice. She “hit” 12 out 13 routines in 2012. Jones, who was part of the beam and floor lineups on a regular basis through her first two years in the program, re-joined the vault lineup in 2012 as well as adding bars to her repertoire after not training the event for more than a year due to injury. Her addition to the vault and bars lineups resulted in Jones earning Pac-12 First Team honors in the all-around. She finished fourth on the floor exercise at the NCAA Championships Event Finals earning first team All-America honors for the first time in her career.
Three OSU gymnasts – Jones, Makayla Stambaugh and Olivia Vivian – shared the Most Inspirational Award, an award voted on by the team, and Brittany Harris garnered Most Consistent Gymnast honors.
Oregon State coaches, families and boosters concluded the festivities by bidding farewell to two seniors, who have finished their gymnastics careers and are on the verge of graduating from OSU. The seniors are Leslie Mak and Olivia Vivian, both of whom are All-Americans. Mak, a four-time All-American, earned first team honors on beam and in the all-around in 2011 and received second team accolades on beam and floor in 2012, while Vivian earned first team All-America honors on bars in 2011.
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