No. 12 Beavers Headed to NCAA Championships
THE MEET
The No. 12 Oregon State gymnastics team (18-9) concludes the 2015 season, April 19-21, at the NCAA Championships at Fort Worth, Texas ... The meet will be held at the Fort Worth Convention Center Arena ... Competition begins Friday with the semifinal rounds of team competition; Oregon State is in the evening session beginning at 6 p.m. ET. The top three finishers in each session moves on. ... The rest of the field in the evening session includes No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 4 LSU, No. 5 Alabama, No. 8 Auburn and No. 9 Nebraska ... The afternoon semifinal session consists of No. 2 Florida, No. 3 Utah, No. 6 Michigan, No. 7 UCLA, NO. 10 Georgia and No. 11 Stanford ... The excitement continues Saturday with the Super Six team finals and concludes Sunday with the Individual Event Finals ... This is the 24th trip to the NCAA Championships for Oregon State and 27th national championships appearance (including AIAW) ... The Beavers’ trip to Fort Worth is the first appearance at the NCAA Championships since 2012 ... Oregon State will be vying for its third-ever Super Six appearance and first since 1996.
MEDIA
The 2015 NCAA Championships will stream at ncaa.com and ESPN3.com ... Semifinals will be available on ncaa.com while Super Six and Individual Event Finals will be on ESPN3.com ... live stats will be available at www.NCAA.com ... As always, fans are also encouraged to follow the Beavers via Twitter - @OregonStateGym.
FOLLOWING THE BEAVERS
The Beavers have their own Facebook (OregonStateGymnastics), Twitter feed (@OregonStateGym) and Instagram account (oregonstategym) which are frequently updated with all of the latest news and happenings surrounding the squad.
ROTATION ORDER
For the second meet in a row Oregon State begins the meet on a bye before the uneven bars. OSU will follow Auburn all evening while LSU will follow the Beavers. This rotation draw means the Beavers will finish the meet on the vault while Nebraska will be on the bars, Oklahoma on the balance beam and LSU on the floor exercise. Auburn and Alabama will finish on a bye. See the table on page 1 for more details.
LAST YEAR AT NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
In 2014, three OSU gymnasts qualified to nationals with Madeline Gardiner and Chelsea Tang performing in the all-around and Kaytianna McMillan on the balance beam. Gardiner earned first team All-America honors in the all-around and on beam where she tied for third at Individual Event Finals.
LAST TIME ON THE COMPETITION FLOOR
The second-seed of the Norman Regional, Oregon State ‘hit’ its first 23 routines and pulled away in the final rotation to secure its first NCAA Championships berth since 2012. The Beavers sat in third place through the midway point in the meet before edging ahead of Southern Utah by .075 entering the sixth rotation where OSU finished on vault and SUU on beam. Five straight strong vaults including the sticks in a row pushed the Beavers on to Fort Worth with a score of 196.750. OSU’s lone set back came in the sixth and final vault when all-arounder Kaytianna McMillan suffered a knee injury that will sideline her until next season. Sophomore Madeline Gardiner won the all-around title with a score of 39.350.
OSU AT NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
Here are some quick hitters about Oregon State’s history at NCAA Championships:
- Oregon State has qualified as a team to the NCAA Championships 24 times and has 27 total appearances in total (including AIAW).
- The Beavers are chasing their third-ever Super Six appearance and first since 1996.
- Five OSU gymnasts have combined to win seven individual national titles. The last OSU gymnast to win a national title was in 1993 when Amy Durham won title on floor exercise - Laurie Carter won on the beam in 1981, Mary Ayotte-Law won on floor in 1982, Heidi Anderson won on beam in 1984 and Joy Selig won on beam in 1989 and 1990 and on the floor in 1990.
RETURNING TO NATIONALS
Oregon State returns to NCAA Championships for the 24th time in school history. However, after a two-year absence the Beavers have only three gymnasts on the squad that have performed on the nationals podium. Senior Chelsea Tang reached the championships as a freshman and competed on the vault. Since then, Tang has qualified as an individual all-around competitor in 2013 and 2014. Her fellow seniors - Taylor Keeker, Katelyn Ohlrich, Kailie Ponto and Cerise Witherby - were also on the 2012 qualifying team but did not compete at the meet. Keeker (vault and bars), Witherby (beam and floor) and Ohlrich (beam) are all currently slated to compete this week. In addition, sophomores Madeline Gardiner and Kaytianna McMillan each qualified to nationals last year. McMillan performed on the beam while Gardiner qualified in the all-around earning first team All-America honors on beam and in the all-around.
RETURNING ALL-AMERICANS
OSU returns one gymnast who has a pair of All-America honors. Madeline Gardiner earned first team All-American recognition on the balance beam and in the all-around at the 2014 NCAA Championships. Gardiner qualified to Individual Event Finals on the beam scoring 9.8875 to tie for third overall.
OREGON STATE QUICK HITTERS
- Oregon State is ranked No. 12 heading into the postseason and are the No. 2-seed at the Norman regional. All four of OSU’s lineups are ranked among the top 25 in the nation. Vault is ranked No. 13 (49.285 RQS); uneven bars are ranked No. 14 (49.215); balance beam is ranked No. 12 (49.145) and floor exercise is No. 7 (49.360).
- OSU’s floor team posted a 49.675 mark in a quad meet against San Jose State, Lindenwood and Seattle Pacific (Mar. 14), the second-highest floor score the Beavers have ever tallied. The school record of 49.700 was set against Stanford in 2004.
- Through 12 meets, Oregon State’s upperclassmen have performed the majority of the routines with the seniors accounting for 36% (104 out of 288) in 2015. The juniors are providing 20% (59 of 288) while the sophomores are making up most of the rest with 39% (113 of 288) and the freshmen 4% (12 of 288).
- OSU has ‘hit’ 94% (272 out of 288) of its routines through 12 meets. In comparison, the Beavers ‘hit’ 96% (264-274) in 2014.
- At Pac-12 Championships, Kaytianna McMillan scored a 9.90 on the vault for the first time in her career. Only a sophomore, she became the ninth gymnast (including current teammate Chelsea Tang) in Oregon State history to record a 9.90 on all four apparatus
- It isn’t new for the Beavers, but a quartet of walk-ons has once again impacted the lineups in 2015. Taylor Keeker has been in the vault and bars lineups in every meet this season. Keeker has served as the anchor to the vault lineup for most of the last two seasons and is also the Beavers’ lead off on the bars. Katelyn Ohlrich has been a regular on the balance beam for three seasons. Kailie Ponto finished the 2014 as an important part of the floor lineup but a knee injury early in 2015 ended her season early. Ponto’s injury has opened the door for junior transfer Jamie Radermacher, who led off for the Beavers at Pac-12 Championships scoring 9.850. As a group 2015, the foursome has ‘hit’ 38 out of 41 routines.
- OSU’s roster includes three transfers: Silvia Colussi-Pelaez transferred from Florida in the spring, while Risa Perez and Radermacher arrived over the summer from Arizona State and Eastern Michigan respectively. The trio combines to produce five routines for the Beavers
- The Beavers have four captains this season - seniors Taylor Keeker, Katelyn Ohlrich and Kailie Ponto as well as junior Erika Aufiero.
ALL-PAC-12 TEAM
Five Oregon State gymnasts were part of the Pac-12’s All-Conference team when the awards were announced last month. OSU’s all-conference gymnasts are Erika Aufiero, Madeline Gardiner, Taylor Keeker, Kaytianna McMillan and Chelsea Tang ... Gardiner earned first team All-Pac-12 in the all-around, her second all-conference honor after receiving second team on balance beam in 2014. Tang also earned first team on the floor exercise. It is the third time Tang has been on the first team earning top honors in the all-around in 2014 and on the balance beam in 2013. Tang added second team honors on the beam this year as well. In addition, Aufiero (vault), Keeker (vault) and McMillan (floor) were all-conference second team recipients. It is the first such honor for Keeker and McMillan while Aufiero received second team honors on bars in 2013.
ALL-ACADEMIC
Ten Oregon State gymnasts were recognized for their diligence in the classroom when the Pac-12 All-Academic team was released last month. Madeline Gardiner, Taylor Keeker and Taylor Ricci received first team honors for the first time in any of their careers (Keeker has previously been a second team selection twice). Katelyn Ohlrich and Kailie Ponto garned academic second team accolades, the third such honor for Ohlrich and first for Ponto. Erika Aufiero, Megan Jimenez, Kaytianna McMillan, Chelsea Tang and Cerise Witherby were each honorable mention.
PAC-12 HONORS GARDINER
Sophomore Madeline Gardiner was voted Gymnast of the Week for the week of March 9-15, the final week of the regular season. Gardiner led the Beavers to their second-highest team score of the season (197.075) and won the all-around tying her career-best score of 39.400 she had set just the previous week. She also won an event title on beam (9.850) and tied for third on the floor with a 9.925.
THREE MORE FOR 2013
In November, three gymnasts signed National Letters of Intent to join the Oregon State gymnastics program for the 2015-16 academic year. Mariana Colussi-Pelaez (Oakville, Ontario), Sabrina Gill (Oakville, Ontario) and McKenna Singley (Kaysville, Utah) are scheduled to enroll at OSU this coming summer ... Colussi-Pelaez is the younger sister of OSU sophomore gymnast Silvia Colussi-Pelaez. Interestingly, Mariana had given her verbal commitment to OSU prior to Silvia’s decision to transfer.
