DAVIS, Calif. -- UC Davis women's gymnastics kicked off the second half of the 2020 season in proper style: by cracking the 195-point barrier for the first time. In fact, the team's 195.475 set at altitude in Saturday's triangular with Air Force and UW-Whitewater rates as the No. 3 road score in school history.
The Aggies will take their show back on the road for the second of four straight road meets, this time at Boise State in a Fright night quadrangular with Utah State and Sacramento State.
UP NEXT
Who: Boise State, Utah State, Sacramento State
When: Friday, February 21 • 6 p.m.
Where: ExtraMile Arena (Boise, Idaho)
Live Results: StatBroadcast (http://statb.us/b/290445)
The RoadToNationals website has not begun ranking teams based on national-qualifying score, but when it does, this current string of road meets will prove crucial for UC Davis, both in terms of its chances for the NCAA postseason but also for its seeding at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships. The NQS counts a minimum of three road meets, and the Aggies' two lowest scores earlier in the year came in such meets (Sacramento State on Jan. 5, Arizona State on Jan. 17). Furthermore, UC Davis hosts the conference meet on March 21, meaning a high score in the regular season finale will count as a home meet for NQS calculation purposes.
In recent years, the cutoff to snare one of the 36 NCAA team berths has fallen in the mid- to high-195 range: 195.400 in 2019 (Lindenwood), 195.750 in 2018 (Central Michigan), 195.420 in 2016 (Minnesota), 195.385 in 2015 (Michigan State). The Aggies have surpassed 195 on the road 10 times in school history, with four of those scores happening at conference championships (see Season Notes below)
UC Davis enjoyed numerous season or all-time bests in Saturday's meet. Junior Gabby Landess compiled a career-high 39.250 in the all-around, a threshold only eight other Aggies have reached in program history. She led a UC Davis exacta at the top of the meet standings, with freshman Logan Clagg finishing second with a personal-best 39.125. Clagg set or tied four personal records in the meet: 9.800 on vault, 9.850 on bars, 9.800 on floor and that all-around total.
Senior Cammi Johnson hit a career high on bars at 9.800, helping UC Davis sweep the top five spots in the meet standings for a 49.150 – tied for third in program annals. Landess (9.875) and Shanae Oishi (9.775) each notched lifetime bests on beam toward a team 2020 high of 48.925. Other season highs belonged to Sarah Liddle on bars (9.825) and Alyssa Ito on beam (9.850), while Cortney Cunningham posted multiple 9.8s in a meet (9.800 on vault, 9.825 on bars) for the first time in her career.
While UC Davis meets up with Boise State on an almost annual basis – 15 times since 2003 – Friday's meet marks the first trip for Aggie gymnastics to Idaho's capital city since March 2, 2007. Oddly, the last two meetings with Utah State have taken place in meets involving Sacramento State (Feb. 9, 2018 home triangular) or Boise State (Jan. 30, 2015 tri at USU). Furthermore, the next two duals on the 2020 slate are in Logan, Utah (Feb. 28) and Sacramento (Mar. 7) to close out the season-long road swing.
March-in at ExtraMile Arena is 7 p.m. Mountain, 6 p.m. PST.
2020 SEASON NOTES
PEAK PERFORMANCES: All four teams in this Friday's quad meet are coming off season-high scores... Utah State hit 196.525 in a home dual with Southern Utah on Friday, Boise State also broke the 196-point barrier (196.150) for the first time this year in a road dual at BYU, while Sacramento State compiled a 193.700 at home against Alaska Anchorage Sunday...
UC Davis' 195.475 in last Saturday's road matinee marks the 10th time the program has broken 195 in a road meet, and the sixth time it has done so in an away meet other than the MPSF Championships:
UC DAVIS ALL-TIME TEAM SCORES - ROAD MEETS
1. at MPSF Championships (San Jose, Mar. 18, 2017) - 195.725
2. at San Jose State w/Brown (Mar. 6, 2016) - 195.575
3. at Washington w/Seattle Pacific (Mar. 9, 2018) - 195.500
4. at Air Force w/UW-Whitewater (Feb. 15, 2020) - 195.475
5. at Sacramento State w/California (Mar. 1, 2019) - 195.450
6. at California (Mar. 8, 2015) - 195.325
7. at MPSF Championships (Sacramento, Mar. 19, 2016) - 195.300
8. at MPSF Championships (Anchorage, Mar. 21, 2015) - 195.300
9. at MPSF Championships (USAFA, Mar. 24, 2018) - 195.200
10. at Seattle Pacific (Feb. 21, 2014) - 195.175
ELITE COMPANY: Kelley Hebert hit a 9.900 on beam for the third time in her career on January 5, then followed with her ninth career 9.9-plus floor score two weeks later at ASU... She shares the school record on each of those two events: 9.925 on beam twice, 9.950 on floor twice... Her 9.900 on beam at Sac State made her just the second Aggie to break a 9.900 in any event of a season opener: Ericka Ruelas first set the school bars record of 9.925 in the Jan. 16, 2000 home dual against San Jose State.
HOMECOMING: The March 21 MPSF championship will also serve as a homecoming for several of the league's coaches... Four of the six members have former UC Davis gymnasts on their respective staffs: Carolyn Kampf and Aya Suzuki at UC Davis, Tanya Ho at UAA, Solorio at Sac State, and Andi Dolinsky-Webb at Air Force.
NQS 101: The national-qualifying score, or NQS for short, is calculated by taking the team's (or individual's) top six scores, of which a minimum of three coming from road meets... The highest score of that six is dropped and the remaining five are averaged... The website RoadToNationals.com began calculating this number after Week 6... The top 36 teams in the nation earn NCAA Regional berths while the top MPSF team earns Olympic order (V-UB-BB-FX) at the conference championship meet... In 2019, UC Davis ranked 39th nationally and topped in the MPSF with a 195.215 NQS entering the conference meet, the latter of which granted the Aggies the regular-season championship.
JUST THE SFACTD: Although not limited to faculty members, the Special Faculty Assistant Coach of the Day program invites a key dignitary to serve as an honorary assistant coach for a home meet... The first SFACTD of 2020 was LeShelle May, an award-winning computer engineer and innovator, and the wife of Chancellor Gary May... UC Davis provost and professor Ralph Hexter filled the role for the January 24 home quad meet.
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MARYA WELCH INITIATIVE: Named after the former physical education instructor, coach and Dean of Women who founded women's sports on the campus 25 years before the passage of Title IX, the Marya Welch Initiative for Women's Athletics provides comprehensive support for UC Davis' 16 women's athletics programs. Through the support of the Marya Welch Initiative and its group members, student-athletes are provided the best possible opportunity to succeed inside the classroom, and in competition, through special project gifts and by increasing visibility and participation at women's events throughout the year. All gifts to the Marya Welch Initiative are matched 1:1, doubling the impact on our women's programs. Visit this site for more information.
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