Beavers Show Off at Orange & Black Exhibition

Friday, December 15

Corvallis, Ore.

7:00 PM

Oregon State

Orange & Black Exhibition

Photo by: Dave Nishitani/Oregon State Athletics

December 15, 2017 | Women's Gymnastics

By: Athletic Communications

CORVALLIS, Ore. – The 12th-ranked Oregon State gymnastics team made its first public appear of the 2017-18 season Friday evening at the annual Orange and Black Exhibition. More than 500 fans gathered at Gill Coliseum to get their first looks at the youthful OSU squad that features 13 of 19 gymnasts in their first or second year in the program.

"It was good to get out there to see where we're at right now," head coach Tanya Chaplin said. "This type of competition setting helps tell us where we need to concentrate over the next month as we prepare for the season."

"Overall, the freshmen did really well. This is a necessary step in preparing them for the season and the competition environment. I am pleased that we had a lot of people step up tonight that weren't in competition lineups last year when we had so many seniors. That will be important for us this year."

Three gymnasts, Destinee Davis, Sabrina Gill and Mary Jacobsen, performed in the all-around while three others, Savanna Force, Maela Lazaro and Kaitlyn Yanish were featured on three events apiece.

In all, 16 out of 19 gymnasts performed in at least one event and four out of five of the Beavers' freshmen made their Gill Coliseum debuts.

The gymnasts performed routines in pairings of head-to-head matchups on each event. The crowd and guest judges then decided which gymnast had performed the best routine by indicating the winner with an orange and black card.

For those keeping score, Team Black defeated Team Orange 10-7 including Gill recording wins on all four of her routines. Sophomore Alyssa Minyard added a pair of wins for the victors while Davis and Lazaro each notched two wins for the Orange squad.

The exhibition was a free event that provided an initial view of the 2017-18 gymnastics team. It concluded with a dance party for children from the crowd joining the gymnasts on the floor and then autographs by the entire gymnastics team.

Among the guest judges were OSU head swimming coach Jennifer Buffin and women's golf head coach Dawn Shockley as well as deputy athletic director Marianna Vydra. In addition, OSU gymnastics alums Madeline Gardiner, Kaytianna McMillan, Taylor Ricci and Chelsea Tang joined local media members as judges including the voice of OSU women's basketball Ron Callan, Jon Warren from KEJO Joe Radio and Steve Gress from the Corvallis Gazette-Times.

The Beavers' season opens Jan. 13 when they travel to the East Coast to take on Pittsburgh. OSU's first home meet is set for Saturday, Jan. 27 in a Pac-12 dual with Stanford.

Season and single meet tickets for the 2018 season are available now at BeaverTickets.com, in person at the Gill Coliseum Ticket Office, or by calling 1-800-GO-BEAVS.

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