Beavers Score 196.900, Dominate in Home Opener

Saturday, January 21

Oregon State

196.900

192.850

Northern Illinois

Photo by: Dave Nishitani/Oregon State Athletics

January 21, 2017 | Women's Gymnastics

OSU vs. Northern Illinois & Seattle Pacific results Results

By: Oregon State Communications

CORVALLIS, Ore. – The 19th-ranked Oregon State gymnastics team (4-0) posted season-high marks on all four events in Saturday afternoon's home opener against Northern Illinois (4-2) and Seattle Pacific (0-3). The Beavers' score of 196.900 is the highest mark in program history through this early in the season.

"We know we are competing against everyone in the country," head coach Tanya Chaplin said. "If we want to be in the top 10, we have to score like this week in and week out. Hopefully, next week we will do a little bit better than this week and just continue to inch it up there."

Senior All-Americans Kaytianna McMillan and Madeline Gardiner finished one-two in the all-around. McMillan, whose previous career-best was 39.400, shattered her personal mark scoring 39.575 to tie for the 13th-highest all-around score in OSU history. Gardiner earned marks totaling 39.325 in her first all-around appearance of the year.

"(McMillan) did a great job," Chaplin said. "It was nice to see all four events work for her tonight. I know she is capable of that, so it was good to see it all come together. Hopefully we will see this build confidence, and we will see the things I know she wants to do."

It was a tremendous bounce back performance for the Beavers, who struggled last Saturday at SPU counting a pair of falls, to come back to hit all 24 routines for the first time this season.

"All week we worked on flipping it, out attitude, our confidence level, just everything from last week because it didn't go exactly how we wanted it," McMillan said. "Going into this week we didn't even look at the score until the end. It was really good for us to feel what it was like to have a really strong meet again."

For the second week in a row, McMillan secured four event titles including the all-around. She scored a meet-high 9.90 on the vault and another 9.90 on bars to tie teammate Erika Aufiero and NIU's Jamyra Carter for first. McMillan added a 9.925 on the floor to win the event as well.

Junior Dani Dessaints locked up the event title on the balance beam with a career-best 9.90.

Oregon State never trailed establishing an early lead and dominated throughout the afternoon as all four lineups exceeded the 49-point mark for the first time this season. The Beavers' top rotation was the uneven bars, as McMillan and Aufiero each scored 9.90's at the end of the lineup. However, Mariana Colussi-Pelaez and McKenna Singley each scored 9.850 a week after missing routines.

Producing personal-bests were freshman Sabrina Gill (9.800) on vault; Dessaints (9.900) and Gill (9.800) on beam; and Megan Jimenez (9.850) on floor. In addition, tying personal marks were McMillan (9.900) on vault; Mariana Colussi-Pelaeaz (9.850) on bars; and McMillan (9.925) and Isis Lowery (9.825) on floor.

The Beavers (4-0) are back in action next Saturday to host UCLA in a dual set for 1:30 p.m.

Team Scores: No. 19 Oregon State 196.900; Northern Illinois 192.850; Seattle Pacific 189.700.
All-Around: 1. Kaytianna McMillan (OSU) 39.575; 2. Madeline Gardiner (OSU) 39.325; 3. Ashley Potts (NIU) 39.000.
Vault (49.125): 1. Kaytianna McMillan (OSU) 9.900; 2. Dani Dessaints (OSU) 9.825; T3. Madeline Gardiner (OSU), Sabrina Gill (OSU), Mary Jacobsen (OSU) 9.800. Other OSU Score: Taylor Ricci 9.675 (Exhibition –Shireen Khamedoost 9.675).
Uneven Bars (49.325): T1. Erika Aufiero (OSU), Kaytianna McMillan (OSU), Jamyra Carter (NIU) 9.900. Other OSU Scores: McKenna Singley 9.850; Mariana Colussi-Pelaez 9.850; Madeline Gardiner 9.825; Mary Jacobsen 9.775 (Exhibition – Shireen Khamedoost 9.600; Halli Briscoe 9.175).
Balance Beam (49.150): 1. Dani Dessaints (OSU) 9.900; 2. Kaytianna McMillan (OSU) 9.850; 3. Madeline Gardiner (OSU) 9.825. Other OSU Scores: Sabrina Gill 9.800; Silvia Colussi-Pelaez 9.775; Megan Jimenez 9.775 (Exhibition – Mary Jacobsen 9.650; Mariana Colussi-Pelaez 9.575).
Floor Exercise (49.300): 1. Kaytianna McMillan (OSU) 9.925; 2. Madeline Gardiner (OSU) 9.875; 3. Megan Jimenez (OSU) 9.850. Other OSU Scores: Isis Lowery 9.825; Taylor Ricci 9.825; Mary Jacobsen 9.800 (Exhibition – Silvia Colussi-Pelaez 9.725).