Oregon State
UCLA
Beavers Edged by Bruins Despite Season-High, 196.675-196.625
January 28, 2011 | Women's Gymnastics
Jan. 28, 2011
Complete Results in PDF Format 
CORVALLIS - The Oregon State gymnastics team, ranked No. 7 in the nation, gave the defending national champion UCLA Bruins all they could handle in a tightly contested meet that came down to fractions of a tenth Friday night at Gill Coliseum in OSU's sixth annual Pink Out meet. Junior Leslie Mak scored a career-best 39.450 in the all-around to secure the event title as the Beavers fell to the Bruins 196.675-196.625 in front of a crowd of 7,128 - the sixth largest crowd in OSU gymnastics history.
"I'm proud of how our team performed tonight," head coach Tanya Chaplin said. "We had uncharacteristic late in the meet and I wish we would have finished better, but when we get a little healthier and have a more consistent floor lineup instead of changing it each week it will help. I have to keep remembering it's January, not the end of the season. We still have time to fix things."
The Beavers started the meet with a solid, but not spectacular, vault rotation. Stephanie McGregor took a big step on her landing to score 9.65, but Leslie Mak nailed her best vault since opening night to score 9.80. Makayla Stambaugh, who aggravated a back injury last week and was a late add to the vault lineup, took a hop on the landing and scored 9.75 and Kelsi Blalock stuck her vault to score 9.825. Becky Colvin had a step back on her vault to score a 9.75 and Britney Ranzy finished things for the Beavers with another stuck landing to score 9.85. After the opening rotation the Beavers trailed 49.275-48.975.
Moving to the uneven bars, the Beavers were looking to make up ground and succeeded. McGregor led off with a solid routine to score 9.775 to open the rotation. Brittany Harris followed with a stuck dismount and a career-high score of 9.875 and Jen Kesler added a 9.85 to set up the back half of the lineup. Stambaugh was next and performed an outstanding routine to score a 9.90. Mak followed with another beautiful routine with a small hop on the dismount and a season-high of 9.925. Olivia Vivian, who entered the night ranked fourth in the nation on the bars, had an impeccable routine and nailed her dismount for a score of 9.925. In all, the Beavers' team score on the bars of 49.475 was the highest in the nation entering the night.
Meanwhile, the Bruins' vaulters scored an identical score of 48.975 as the Beavers' vault and OSU held the lead at the halfway point 98-450-98.250.
On the balance beam, Melanie Jones led off with a solid routine of 9.70 and was followed by Blalock, who bounced back from last week's beam performance, with a 9.75. Harris was next with a career-best 9.80. Kesler, Vivian and Mak rounded out the Beavers' beam lineup with back-to-back-to-back scores of 9.85. Meanwhile the Bruins were closing the gap scoring 49.250 on the floor.
Oregon State held a half-tenth lead going to into the final rotation at 147.550-147.500. After a rough start to the rotation, with an out of bounds deduction for Blalock and a fall from Colvin, the Beavers needed a big score to stay close in the meet. Jones delivered with a spectacular floor routine and a career-best score of 9.925 to win the event title. Vivian followed with a solid score of 9.775 and Mak tied her career-high of 9.875. Ranzy, competing in the floor lineup for the first time at OSU, finished with a great routine that included huge tumbling and received a score of 9.85.
The Beavers will be on the road for the next few weeks with meets at Arizona State, Feb. 6, and at the IGI Style Invitational in Chicago, Feb. 11, before a bye week. They'll return to Gill Coliseum for the annual Salbasgeon Suites Invitational, Friday, Feb. 25, when they host Washington, San Jose State and UC Davis.
Notes: Friday night's Pink Out crowd of 7,128 is the sixth largest crowd in Oregon State gymnastics history and the biggest crowd since 7,583 fans filled Gill Coliseum for a regular season dual with Utah in 1997 ... OSU's uneven bars team score of 49.475 is the highest score of the season across the nation entering the week.
Team Scores:
No. 9 UCLA 196.675; No. 7 Oregon State 196.625.All-Around: 1. Leslie Mak (OSU) 39.450; t2. Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs (UCLA), Brittani McCullough (UCLA) 39.400.
Vault (48.975): t1. Britney Ranzy (OSU), Tauny Frattone (UCLA) 9.850; t3. Kelsi Blalock (OSU), Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs (UCLA) 9.825. Other OSU Scores: Leslie Mak 9.800; Becky Colvin 9.750; Makayla Stambaugh 9.750; Stephanie McGregor 9.650 (Exhibition - Leilani Alferos 8.850).
Uneven Bars (49.475): t1. Leslie Mak (OSU), Olivia Vivian (OSU) 9.925; 3. Makayla Stambaugh (OSU) 9.900. Other OSU Scores: Brittany Harris 9.875; Jen Kesler 9.850; Stephanie McGregor 9.775 (Exhibition - Hannah Casey 9.800).
Balance Beam (49.100): 1. Brittani McCullough (UCLA) 9.900; t2. Jen Kesler (OSU), Olivia Vivian (OSU), Leslie Mak (OSU), Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs (UCLA) 9.850. Other OSU Scores: Brittany Harris 9.800; Kelsi Blalock 9.750; Melanie Jones 9.700 (Exhibition - Amanda Schulberg 9.525).
Floor Exercise (49.075): 1. Melanie Jones (OSU) 9.925; 2. Brittani McCullough (UCLA) 9.900; t3. Leslie Mak (OSU), Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs 9.875. Other OSU Scores: Britney Ranzy 9.850; Olivia Vivian 9.775; Kelsi Blalock 9.650 (Exhibition - Brittany Harris 9.775).
Players Mentioned
