Beavs Set for Regional Showdown in Athens
THE MEET
The No. 13 Oregon State gymnastics team (17-5-1) returns to the road to compete at the NCAA Athens Regional Championships Saturday, April 2 at 1 p.m. PT. The meet will be hosted by the University of Georgia at the Stegeman Coliseum and will stream live via the SEC Network+/WatchESPN ... the Beavers enter the meet as the third-seed facing No. 3 LSU, No. 9 Georgia, No. 22 Arizona, No. 27 George Washington and No. 36 Michigan State ... Oregon State will begin the meet on the floor exercise then go to vault, then a bye, uneven bars, balance beam and will finish on another bye.
BEAVER BITES
The Beavers are ranked tied for No. 13 this week ... all four of OSU’s lineups are ranked among the top 25 in the nation. The beam lineup is the highest ranked for the Beavers at No. 10 (49.230 regional qualifying score) while the bars lineup is tied at No. 10 (49.270). The floor (49.185) and vault (49.025) squads ranked No. 21 ... OSU’s roster includes a trio of All-Americans, four-time honoree Madeline Gardiner, who has finished third on the beam in Event Finals each of the last two years, Kaytianna McMillan, who received her first All-American honor last week from the National Association of Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches/Women (NACGC/W) on the uneven bars, and Erika Aufiero, who has missed entire season due to a knee injury suffered the week of the season opener ... three OSU gymnasts earned Pac-12 All-Conference recognition when the team was announced last week. Gardiner earned first team honors in the all-around for the second straight year, while McMillan received first team accolades on the uneven bars. Risa Perez, who scored a career-best 9.950 on the beam at the Pac-12 Championships to tie for conference champ honors with Gardiner, also earned second team all-conference honors ... Gardiner is the only OSU gymnast to perform in the all-around for Oregon State this year and has done so in all 11 meet thus far. Freshman McKenna Singley is the only other OSU gymnast to have performed in all four lineups at any point in 2016 ... the Beavers return 10 contributors in 2016 including 15 out of 24 routines from NCAA Championships in 2015. But it is more complicated than that. Senior Erika Aufiero, who was slated to perform in the all-around, and sophomore Dani Dessaints, who anchored the vault and bars lineups in the season-opener will both miss the season due to injury.
OSU AT REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
Here are some quick hitters about Oregon State’s history in the NCAA Regional Championships:
Saturday marks the 21st time OSU and LSU have met with the Tigers holding a 12-7-1 advantage in the series. This will be the second time in recent weeks the two have collided after meeting for a quad meet at Texas Woman’s University March 12. LSU (197.825) won the meet with the Beavers coming in second (196.550) in Denton.
VS. GEORGIA
This match-up is the 23rd between the Beavers and Bulldogs with UGA holding am 18-4 series advantage. The teams haven’t faced each other since the 2013 NCAA Corvallis Regional when the Bulldogs finished first in the region, 197.425-195.375. OSU’s last win in the series came in January 2013 at the Metroplex Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas.
VS. ARIZONA
OSU meets Arizona for the 83rd time this weekend. In all, the Beavers hold a series lead of 56-26 overall and 7-3 in postseason action. Oregon State finished tied for second at Pac-12 Championships March 19 while the Wildcats finished sixth.
VS. GEORGE WASHINGTON
This will be the fourth time the Beavers and Colonials have met with OSU holding a 3-0 series lead. The two teams have not faced off since the Colonials tripped to Corvallis for what was then known as the Shanico Inn-Vitational in 1998.
VS. MICHIGAN STATE
Oregon State leads the all-time series with the Spartans 12-0. The two have not met since 2012 at regional championships at Auburn.
OREGON STATE QUICK HITTERS
Here are some quick hitters about the Oregon State gymnastics team in 2016:
Oregon State rallied in the final rotation to tie for second place at Pac-12 Championships. The Beavers ‘hit’ all 24 routines for the fifth straight meet and established a season-high on the balance beam scoring 49.525 to close out the meet. Madeline Gardiner scored 39.500 to tie her career-best in the all-around and finished second in the meet. Gardiner and Risa Perez each tallied career-high marks of 9.950 on the beam to tie as Pac-12 champions on the event.
CONFERENCE OF CHAMPIONS
The Pac-12 Conference has seven out of eight of its teams ranked in the Top 36, which is the number of teams that qualify to NCAA Regionals. Utah is ranked No. 5, UCLA is at No. 9, California is 11th, Washington is 17th, Stanford is 19th, and Arizona is 21st.
THREE FOR 2017
In November, two gymnasts signed the National Letters of Intent to join the Oregon State gymnastics program for the 2016-17 academic year. Isis Lowery (Melbourne, Australia) and Brianna McCant (Frisco, Texas) are scheduled to enroll in Oregon State this coming summer. In addition, 2015 signee Sabrina Gill (Oakville, Ontario) is slated to join the program for the 2017 season as well. Gill opted to defer her enrollment while she trains for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro for Team Canada.
The No. 13 Oregon State gymnastics team (17-5-1) returns to the road to compete at the NCAA Athens Regional Championships Saturday, April 2 at 1 p.m. PT. The meet will be hosted by the University of Georgia at the Stegeman Coliseum and will stream live via the SEC Network+/WatchESPN ... the Beavers enter the meet as the third-seed facing No. 3 LSU, No. 9 Georgia, No. 22 Arizona, No. 27 George Washington and No. 36 Michigan State ... Oregon State will begin the meet on the floor exercise then go to vault, then a bye, uneven bars, balance beam and will finish on another bye.
BEAVER BITES
The Beavers are ranked tied for No. 13 this week ... all four of OSU’s lineups are ranked among the top 25 in the nation. The beam lineup is the highest ranked for the Beavers at No. 10 (49.230 regional qualifying score) while the bars lineup is tied at No. 10 (49.270). The floor (49.185) and vault (49.025) squads ranked No. 21 ... OSU’s roster includes a trio of All-Americans, four-time honoree Madeline Gardiner, who has finished third on the beam in Event Finals each of the last two years, Kaytianna McMillan, who received her first All-American honor last week from the National Association of Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches/Women (NACGC/W) on the uneven bars, and Erika Aufiero, who has missed entire season due to a knee injury suffered the week of the season opener ... three OSU gymnasts earned Pac-12 All-Conference recognition when the team was announced last week. Gardiner earned first team honors in the all-around for the second straight year, while McMillan received first team accolades on the uneven bars. Risa Perez, who scored a career-best 9.950 on the beam at the Pac-12 Championships to tie for conference champ honors with Gardiner, also earned second team all-conference honors ... Gardiner is the only OSU gymnast to perform in the all-around for Oregon State this year and has done so in all 11 meet thus far. Freshman McKenna Singley is the only other OSU gymnast to have performed in all four lineups at any point in 2016 ... the Beavers return 10 contributors in 2016 including 15 out of 24 routines from NCAA Championships in 2015. But it is more complicated than that. Senior Erika Aufiero, who was slated to perform in the all-around, and sophomore Dani Dessaints, who anchored the vault and bars lineups in the season-opener will both miss the season due to injury.
OSU AT REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
Here are some quick hitters about Oregon State’s history in the NCAA Regional Championships:
- Oregon State reached the regional round of competition for the 42nd consecutive season.
- OSU has won regional titles 10 times with the most recent coming in 2011.
- 32 OSU gymnasts have combined to win 68 individual regional titles over the course of 41 years.
- Two current OSU gymnasts already have NCAA Regional titles to their credit - Kaytianna McMillan (beam, 2014) and Madeline Gardiner (all-around, 2015).
- Oregon State has faced two of the other five teams in the field this season. The Beavers defeated Arizona at Pac-12 Championships (196.925-195.525) and fell to LSU in a quad meet at Texas Woman’s University in March (197.825-196.550).
Saturday marks the 21st time OSU and LSU have met with the Tigers holding a 12-7-1 advantage in the series. This will be the second time in recent weeks the two have collided after meeting for a quad meet at Texas Woman’s University March 12. LSU (197.825) won the meet with the Beavers coming in second (196.550) in Denton.
VS. GEORGIA
This match-up is the 23rd between the Beavers and Bulldogs with UGA holding am 18-4 series advantage. The teams haven’t faced each other since the 2013 NCAA Corvallis Regional when the Bulldogs finished first in the region, 197.425-195.375. OSU’s last win in the series came in January 2013 at the Metroplex Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas.
VS. ARIZONA
OSU meets Arizona for the 83rd time this weekend. In all, the Beavers hold a series lead of 56-26 overall and 7-3 in postseason action. Oregon State finished tied for second at Pac-12 Championships March 19 while the Wildcats finished sixth.
VS. GEORGE WASHINGTON
This will be the fourth time the Beavers and Colonials have met with OSU holding a 3-0 series lead. The two teams have not faced off since the Colonials tripped to Corvallis for what was then known as the Shanico Inn-Vitational in 1998.
VS. MICHIGAN STATE
Oregon State leads the all-time series with the Spartans 12-0. The two have not met since 2012 at regional championships at Auburn.
OREGON STATE QUICK HITTERS
Here are some quick hitters about the Oregon State gymnastics team in 2016:
- The Beavers have counted only one fall in 2016 ... the counter came with pair of falls on the balance beam at Utah ... OSU counted falls in two meets in 2015.
- OSU has ‘hit’ 251 out of 264 (95.1%) routines in 2016 ... the Beavers ‘hit’ 94.6% (297 out of 314) of their routines over the course of 13 meets in 2015.
- It took until the seventh meet of the season, but the Beavers ‘hit’ all 24 routines for the first time in 2016 against California ... it has now been five straight meets without a missed routine (130 routines).
- Oregon State has relied heavily on junior Madeline Gardiner to compete in the all-around for much of the last three seasons. Thus far in her career, Gardiner has performed in the all-around 25 times in her career including the last 16 meets. Gardiner had won three all-around titles entering the season and has already exceeded that mark in 2016 having won the all-around in the Beavers’ first four meets ... in total she has won six all-around titles this season and 15 total individual titles in 2016.
- The Beavers have a couple gymnasts ranked among the top 35 in the nation on various events. Kaytianna McMillan is currently ranked No. 7 on the uneven bars (9.925 RQS) while Madeline Gardiner is tied for No. 12 on the balance beam (9.905) and is No. 17 in the all-around (39.415).
- The 2016 roster includes four freshmen: Mary Jacobsen, Mariana Colussi-Pelaez, McKenna Singley and Elizabeth Yu. Colussi-Pelaez is the younger sister of Silvia Colussi-Pelaez, who transferred to Oregon State last year.
- Thirteen of OSU’s 2016 opponents were ranked in the preseason top 36: No. 4 Utah, No. 5 LSU, No. 6 UCLA, No. 8 Stanford, No. 9 Georgia, No. 10 Auburn, No. 14 California, No. 18 Arizona, No. 26 Michigan State, No. 30 Washington, No. 33 New Hampshire, No. 35 George Washington and No. 36 Arizona State.
Oregon State rallied in the final rotation to tie for second place at Pac-12 Championships. The Beavers ‘hit’ all 24 routines for the fifth straight meet and established a season-high on the balance beam scoring 49.525 to close out the meet. Madeline Gardiner scored 39.500 to tie her career-best in the all-around and finished second in the meet. Gardiner and Risa Perez each tallied career-high marks of 9.950 on the beam to tie as Pac-12 champions on the event.
CONFERENCE OF CHAMPIONS
The Pac-12 Conference has seven out of eight of its teams ranked in the Top 36, which is the number of teams that qualify to NCAA Regionals. Utah is ranked No. 5, UCLA is at No. 9, California is 11th, Washington is 17th, Stanford is 19th, and Arizona is 21st.
THREE FOR 2017
In November, two gymnasts signed the National Letters of Intent to join the Oregon State gymnastics program for the 2016-17 academic year. Isis Lowery (Melbourne, Australia) and Brianna McCant (Frisco, Texas) are scheduled to enroll in Oregon State this coming summer. In addition, 2015 signee Sabrina Gill (Oakville, Ontario) is slated to join the program for the 2017 season as well. Gill opted to defer her enrollment while she trains for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro for Team Canada.
