Feb. 28, 2016 Complete Results
DAVIS, Calif. - UC Davis claimed individual winners in all four events en route to a first-place, season-high score of 195.225 in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation women's gymnastics dual meet with Alaska Anchorage Sunday afternoon at the Pavilion. The visiting Seawolves scored 192.250.
The Aggies' meet total ranks ninth in school history, and surpasses the previous season best of 194.750 set at BYU in January.
Junior Katy Nogaki won vault outright with a season-high 9.875, sophomore Miranda Holder and senior Dani Judal tied for the uneven bars title at 9.800, sophomore Alexis Brown and senior Stephanie Stamates shared the beam win with 9.875 efforts, then freshman Yasmine Yektaparast led a 1-2-3-4 UC Davis sweep on floor with her career-high 9.900.
Yektaparast becomes just the 11th gymnast in school history to break the 9.9 barrier on floor, and the first freshman to do so since Tiffany Chan achieved that feat five times back in 2002. She paced a 49.100 team total in the fourth rotation, with Stamates following with 9.875 and Holder and Amanda Presswood sharing third place at 9.800. Senior co-captain Taylor Baron was perhaps the unsung hero of the floor rotation: she filled in for freshman Kara Jones, who sustained a minor injury on beam earlier in the meet. In her first lineup appearance of the year, Baron scored a 9.725 in the leadoff spot.
UC Davis led wire-to-wire in the meet. Nogaki anchored the Aggies' vault lineup, which totaled a 48.775 in the opening rotation. Her 9.875 would have been a school record if not for the rules change that lowered the start value for her routine: prior to 2016, that same vault would have been a 9.925. Nogaki already owns a share of the five-way tie atop the UC Davis record book for that apparatus. Jones and Brown added second-place 9.750 scores toward what is the Aggie vaulters' No. 2 score for the year.
Freshman Aya Suzuki made her lineup debut on uneven bars at 9.325, with sophomores Jordan Helgesen (9.725) and Holder (9.800) following with respective career-high scores to lead off the meet's second rotation. Judal tied her 2016 best of 9.800, then Brown added a 9.750 to boost UC Davis to a 48.400 on bars and a 97.175 total at the meet's midpoint.
Brown's 9.875 on balance beam set a personal best and tied a team season high, previously shared by Nogaki and Stamates. She also joins the sizable tie for fifth in school history. On the very next routine, Stamates matched that score for the third time this season to join her sophomore teammate atop the meet standings. Nogaki rounded out the lineup with a 9.800 as UC Davis hit its highest beam score, a 48.950, since breaking the 49-point barrier in the home opener in mid-January.
The Aggies entered the final rotation with a 146.125-143.600 lead in the team race, needing a floor score in the high 48s to eclipse the 195-point barrier. Instead, the floor team broke the 49-point threshold for the second time this season to clinch the overall team season-high total.
UAA seniors M'rcy Matsunami and Simone Penker were the meet's lone all-arounders, finishing 1-2 with scores of 38.850 and 38.600, respectively. Penker led the Seawolves on beam with a 9.775, helping her team tie its school record of 48.650.
Sunday's meet was designated as the annual Alumni Day. More than two dozen former Aggie gymnasts returned to the Pavilion to witness the new banner commemorating the six MPSF team championships and the two NCAA West Regional team berths. Furthermore, Rich Engel, executive director of the university's alumni association, provided an exhibition routine. The meet also honored Alyssa Kalb, the Aggies' "adopted" teammate from the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation, which seeks to improve the quality of life for children battling pediatric brain tumors. Kalb and her family attend at least one home meet each year since joining the UC Davis women's gymnastics family in 2014.
UC Davis returns to action in exactly one week, competing in a road triangular at San Jose State with visiting Brown on March 6 at the Event Center. March-in is scheduled for 2 p.m.
TEAM SCORES - 1. UC Davis, 195.225; 2. Alaska Anchorage, 192.250.
VAULT - 1. Katy Nogaki, UC Davis, 9.875; 2 (tie). Marie-Sophie Boggasch, UAA; Kara Jones, UC Davis; Alexis Brown, UC Davis, 9.750.
UNEVEN BARS - 1 (tie). Miranda Holder, UC Davis; Dani Judal, UC Davis; 9.800; 3 (tie). M'rcy Matsunami, UAA: Alexis Brown, UC Davis, 9.750.
BALANCE BEAM - 1 (tie). Alexis Brown, UC Davis; Stephanie Stamates, UC Davis, 9.875; 3. Katy Nogaki, UC Davis, 9.800.
FLOOR EXERCISE - 1. Yasmine Yektaparast, UC Davis; 9.900; 2. Stephanie Stamates, UC Dvais, 9.875; 3 (tie). Miranda Holder, UC Davis; Amanda Presswood, UC Davis, 9.800.
ALL-AROUND - 1. M'rcy Matsunami, UAA, 38.850; 2. Simone Penker, UAA, 38.600.
