No. 8 gymnastics heads south for Regionals

After a third place finish in conference two weeks ago, Oregon State will travel to Tucson, Arizona in search of another trip to nationals

By: Sami Redmond

Posted: 4/12/07

The No. 8 OSU gymnastics team is preparing for another away meet this Friday, but this time the stakes are higher.

The Beavers are on their way to the NCAA South Central Regional Championships in Tucson, Ariz., two weeks after placing third at the Pac-10 Championships. With a team score of 193.6, they fell to both UCLA and Stanford.

"It was one of our more solid competitions," coach Tanya Chaplin said. "I was proud of how they handled themselves out there."

After the Pac-10s, the Beavers were awarded the ninth seed overall for the NCAA regional competition. OSU was placed into the South Central Region as the second seed and will once again face No. 4 Stanford, which occupies the top seed in the region.

The Beavers will also compete against third-seeded No. 15 Arizona. Other seeded teams will include No. 20 Illinois, Illinois-Chicago and Arizona State. OSU fell to both Arizona and Stanford earlier in the season.

The Beavers will kick off their competition rotation on the vault and will follow the events in Olympic order throughout the meet. This rotation is the same the Beavers followed when they compete in Gill Coliseum and may be an advantage.

"They are starting off on the home rotation, which is great," Chaplin said. "That is a plus, and they have things set up and now they just have to go on there and do their job."

The regional pairings are established by seeding the best 18 teams in the country. They are then assigned to a region in an attempt to evenly distribute the competition to the six different regional championships. The top three unseeded teams in each region are also qualified to compete in their region's championship.

The Beavers have made huge strides this season and have increased their final team score dramatically. They began the season with a rough rotation on the vault and a mediocre bars lineup, but have finally found their footing and are sticking their routines. Several vaults have scored above the 9.85 range.

"Hopefully they will do well," Chaplin said. "They have been a team who can really step up and focus in when they want to. They are prepared and they have been doing well in practice."

Star freshman Mandi Rodriguez has without a doubt been a meaningful new addition to the team, scoring high in the all-around as well as on the vault with two scores this season of 9.95. Sophomore Jami Lanz is currently ranked eighth in the nation in the all-around and has also made a huge contribution to the team, as well as All-American Tasha Smith.

"It is amazing," Rodriguez said. "I didn't really expect it. It was a big honor, and I was really excited."

Last year, Oregon State qualified for the NCAA Championships with a 195.8 at the West Regional Championships. This season, Oregon State has earned over a team score of 196 in six meets, including a 197.1 against Cal State-Fullerton.

A solid performance will provide the Beavers with the opportunity to compete at the NCAA Championships for the second consecutive year. The top two teams and the top two all-around competitors in each region will receive an automatic qualification for nationals in Salt Lake City, Utah. The event winners at each regional championship will also qualify to compete in Utah in that event.

"It is like a fight for survival,

everybody wants to be in the top two," Smith said.

The Beavers fate lies in their ability to maintain consistency and pull out clutch routines. Throughout the season, they have shown their ability to score extremely well. They will have to recreate these routines to ensure their right to compete at nationals.

The six teams will take the floor for the South Central Regional Championships at 6 p.m. in the McKale Center on the University of Arizona campus.