Harris, Stambaugh & Tang Prepare for NCAA Championships
April 15, 2013
MEET #13
Three Oregon State gymnasts - Brittany Harris, Makayla Stambaugh and Chelsea Tang - qualified as individuals to compete at the 2013 NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships presented by Northwestern Mutual. Harris and Tang will perform in the all-around and Stambaugh will compete on the floor exercise ... All three OSU gymnasts will perform in the evening session of semifinals beginning at 6 p.m., Friday, April 19 at Pauley Pavilion ... The Beavers will perform as individuals seeking a shot at individual national titles. The top four individuals in each event (plus ties) from Friday’s semifinals will compete in the individual event finals competition on Sunday, April 22 at 1 p.m.
FOLLOWING THE ACTION
The NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships will not be televised. Fans unable to atend the meet can view the competition via the Internet with Friday’s semifinal sessions streaming at www.ncaa.com. Saturday’s Super Six and Sunday’s Individual Event Finals will stream live via ESPN3.com, which is ESPN’s live multi-screen network, a 24/7 destination that delivers thousands of global sports events annually and accessible online via WatchESPN.com. The talent will be Kathy Johnson-Clarke (play-by-play) with Bart Conner providing analysis ... Live stats will available through www.ncaa.com ... Oregon State fans are also encouraged to follow the action via the OSU Gymnastics Twitter feed - @OregonStateGym.
OSU HISTORY AT NATIONALS
Oregon State has qualified as a team to the NCAA Championships 23 times and has 26 national championship appearances (including AIAW) ... This marks the fourth time in school history that OSU has had individuals qualify to nationals; Tanya Ricioli-Hebron is the most recent OSU gymnast to qualify as an individual making and all-around appearance in 2004. In addition, Lara Degenhardt (floor) and Megan Murphy-Barcroft (vault & floor) went to the NCAA Championships as individuals in 1999. Deanne Droegemueller (bars) and Megan Murphy (all-around) also earned individual tickets in 1998.
ROTATION ORDER
All three of Oregon State individual qualifiers will perform in semifinal session II beginning at 6 p.m. PT. Brittany Harris will be rotate with Arkansas beginning on the vault, Brittany Harris was fifth in the all-around (39.125) and both advanced to nationals as well.
LAST YEAR AT NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
Oregon State stumbled on its first event, the floor exercise, but continued to fight on to the end registering the team’s best score of the meet on the final event, balance beam, but it wasn’t enough. The Beavers finished sixth in the evening session and 12th overall, but just .150 points separated 8th from 12th. Three gymnasts - Brittany Harris (39.325), Jones (39.275) and Mak (39.075).
RETURNING ALL-AMERICANS
OSU returns two gymnasts who have combined for five All-America honors in their careers. Senior Makayla Stambaugh is now a four-time All-American, twice earning first team honors on the floor exercise (finishing 8th in 2011) and once on the uneven bars, where she tied for third in 2011. Stambaugh earned second team All-America on the floor in 2012. Fellow senior Melanie Jones earned a the first All-America honors of her career in 2012, finishing fourth on the floor exercise - the best finish for an OSU gymnast on the apparatus since Amy Durham won the event in 1993.
IN THE RANKINGS
All four of the Beavers’ lineups ranked among the top 20 in the nation. OSU’s bars team finished the season ranked No. 5 (49.350 RQS), the vault team ranked No. 10 (49.350) as was the beam team (49.170) and the floor exercise lineup tied for No. 19 (49.190). Makayla Stambaugh was No. 5 in the nation on bars (9.930), tied for No. 13 on the floor (9.915) and No. 13 in the all-around (39.490). Kelsi Blalock tied for No. 6 on vault (9.930) and Melanie Jones tied for No. 20 on floor (9.905).
PAC-12 CHAMPIONS
Oregon State performed the Beavers set a school-record scoring 197.850 coming from behind in the final rotation to win the Pac-12 Championships in Corvallis. In that final rotation, the Beavers nailed six straight routines on the uneven bars establishing a school-record 49.675 on the apparatus. OSU twice overcame mid-lineup falls (on beam and vault) to recover and set or tied season-highs on all four events. Makayla Stambaugh scored 9.975 on bars to win the Pac-12 title and Makayla Stambaugh claimed four of those awards as Gymnast of the Week over the course of the final month of the regular season (see note on page 3 for more information). But it was senior transfer Hailey Gaspar to get things started making her mark on the Pac-12 Conference in just her second meet at Oregon State. Following her week 2 performance Gaspar was named the Pac-12 Freshman/Newcomer of the Week for Jan. 7-13 after scoring 9.875 to tie for the event title in Oregon State’s victory over Ohio State.
ALL-PAC-12 TEAM
Eight Oregon State gymnasts combined to earn 11 All-Pac-12 honors when awards were announced recently. OSU’s all-conference selections are: Brittany Harris (bars - 1st team), Makayla Stambaugh (vault, bars & floor - 1st team) and Chelsea Tang (beam - 1st team) ... Stambaugh, a senior, has been a first team selection all four years (FX - ‘09; UB & FX - ‘10; AA - ‘11) ... Blalock, a senior, is a three-time all-conference selection (1st team vault in ‘11 and 2nd team vault in ‘12) ... Jones, a senior, was a first team selection in the all-around in 2012 ... Harris, a junior, was a second team selection on bars in 2012 ... Aufiero, Gaspar, McGregor and Tang are first time selections.
315 AND COUNTING
In February, Oregon State head coach Tanya Chaplin notched the 300th win of her career at Arizona State (2/8). Chaplin, who already is OSU’s all-time leader in regular season wins with 253, is the second gymnastics coach in OSU history to reach the 300 win mark in her career and currently sits at 315. Former coach Jim Turpin amassed an overall record of 317-145 (214-69 in the regular season) from 1986-97.
STAMBAUGH CONTINUES ASSAULT ON RECORD BOOK
Senior all-arounder Makayla Stambaugh earned another individual titles (floor exercise) last time out at the NCAA Corvallis Regional giving her 22 event titles in 2013, tying for sixth on OSU single season list. Stambaugh moved into sole possession of fourth on OSU’s all-time list with 54 career individual titles moving past Leslie Mak (2009-12).
KEEPING GOOD COMPANY
Earlier this season in OSU’s home meet against Arizona (Feb. 22) when Makayla Stambaugh’s vault score of 9.90 flashed on the scoreboard she reached another career milestone and now has career-bests of 9.90 or better on all four events. She becomes one of just seven former OSU gymnasts to record scores of 9.90 on all four events, an impressive group that includes Tanya Ricioli-Hebron (2000, 02-04) and Mandi Rodriguez (2007-10).
STAMBAUGH SETS PAC-12 RECORD
Senior all-arounder Makayla Stambaugh set the conference record with four straight Pac-12 Gymnast of the Week awards late in the season. With seven GOW awards in her career, she trails only one gymnast in conference history - UCLA senior Vanessa Zamarripa. Most recently Stambaugh scored 39.600, the ninth-highest score in OSU history, in leading the Beavers to victory at the Comfort Suites Invitational. The previous week, Stambaugh helped the Beavers to break the 197-point barrier for the first time in 2013 in a narrow loss at Stanford. Her first two awards came in home meets, first upsetting then-unbeaten UCLA and then in an impressive outing at OSU’s annual Pink Out meet. During the four week stretch, Stambaugh posted 10 scores of 9.90 or better including four scores of 9.95. Unfortunately, due to OSU’s bye during the week of the regular season she was unable to defend her record going for a fifth straight Pac-12 honor.
ALL-AROUNDERS GALORE
In each of the first three meets of 2013 the Beavers used 12 gymnasts to execute their 24 routines. It was a significant departure from what the Beavers’ lineup looked like in 2012, when just eight gymnasts performed for most of the season - including four all-arounders. As the season progressed the Beavers added competitors to the all-around mix going with as many as four at the Metroplex Challenge and against UCLA ... For proof that the lineup was ever-evolving though, the Beavers’ last two regular season meets once again featured 12 gymnasts to complete the team’s 24 routines. It marked the first time the Beavers have needed a dozen gymnasts since January ... Brittany Harris joined her at the home opener against Ohio State and remained in the all-around lineup for six meets in a row. Shortly after Kelsi Blalock and Melanie Jones each performed in the all-around in 2013.
SENIOR LADEN
While OSU has a youthful squad, the competitive lineup was laden with seniors. At Pac-12 Championships, the Beavers’ five seniors performed 13 routines - five vaults, three each on beam and floor and two on bars. For the season, the seniors completed 151 of the Beavers’ 287 routines (53%).
SCHEDULING QUIRK
Oregon State has a bit of a quirk in the schedule in 2013 with only four regular season home meets. However, the lack of home events is mitigated by the Beavers hosting Pac-12 Championships Mar. 23 and the NCAA Corvallis Regional Championships as well April 6. With OSU getting through a grueling set of four straight early season meets on the road the Beavers did not have to take after March 1st (at Stanford) until NCAA Championships at UCLA this week.
TO BE THE BEST, YOU’VE GOT TO BEAT THE BEST
As always the Beavers’ schedule provides difficult challenges week-in and week-out. Head coach Tanya Chaplin’s belief that competing against the best competition possible each week helps to prepare her squad for the highest caliber competition in the postseason. OSU faced 17 different opponents over the course of 10 weeks leading up to the Pac-12 Championships and the postseason. Of those opponents 11 were ranked in the NACGC/W Preseason Coaches’ Poll and five others received votes.
CHAPLIN NAMES CAPTAINS
Seniors Makayla Stambaugh and junior Hannah Casey were chosen as team co-captains for the 2013 season. The foursome was selected in a vote by teammates.
FOUR MORE FOR 2014
In November, four high school seniors signed the National Letters of Intent to join the Oregon State gymnastics program for the 2014 season. Megan Jimenez (Temecula, Calif.), Kana Kobayashi (Salt Lake City, Utah), Kaytianna McMillan (Coburg, Ore.) and Taylor Ricci (North Vancouver, B.C.) are scheduled to enroll at OSU this coming summer ... “We are very excited to sign these four young women. They are talented gymnasts and excellent students with the ability and drive to become the next standouts for the Oregon State gymnastics program,” Tanya Chaplin said.
