DAVIS, Calif. -- For the first time in more than five years, UC Davis women's gymnastics heads to its fourth straight road meet. Even a run of three straight away from home is unusual to itself, but four in a row is an even rarer bird. In the John Lavallee era, such a stretch has happened only twice: February 1-15 in 2009, and January 9-30 in 2015.
The Aggies take their show on a much shorter road than in recent weeks, this time crossing the Yolo Causeway to face Sacramento State for the fifth time in 2020, and the second time toward this year's Causeway Cup race.
UP NEXT
Who: Sacramento State
When: Saturday, March 7 • 7 p.m.
Where: The Nest (Sacramento, Calif.)
Live Results: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=289270
Having four straight road weekends might not be the coach's first preference, but it certainly has worked out for the 2020 team: the Aggies' two highest scores of the year – and among the highest of all-time – took place in this February run. UC Davis went 195.475 at Air Force on the 15th, then posted an all-time road high of 195.850 at Boise State two weeks ago. Last week, the team went 193.700 in a dual meet at Utah State, enough to erase yet another early-season mark from the National Qualifying Score calculation.
Best yet, Saturday's meet comes in the familiar venue of Sacramento State's Nest. It counts as a valuable road score for the NQS (which requires a minimum of three away meets), only without the trappings of a typical road meet. No travel, no hotel beds, no altitude or time-zone adjustments.
"I don't necessarily consider Sac State a road meet," said Lavallee "For the purposes of scoring, yes, but the reality is that it's easier than having a home meet."
On top of that, UC Davis has enjoyed a strong recent history in meets at the Sac State campus. Two of the best road scores in history took place at the Nest: the 195.450 in last year's triangular with Cal, and the 195.300 at the 2016 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championships. The program's best season opener also ran in the capital city in the form of last year's NorCal Classic 194.950.
"Really, when I look at what we've done in the past three weeks, we've put up two good away scores in tough places. I'll take two out of three, with the opportunity this weekend to put some more money in the bank. I feel like we're in a good place," Lavallee said.
Individually, junior Alyssa Ito leads the MPSF and sits in a tie for 11th on balance beam with a 9.845 NQS. Little surprise there – the design major from Hacienda Heights has scored 9.825 or higher in each of the last six meets, including that school-record 9.925 in Boise two weeks prior.
Junior Gabby Landess ranks fourth on uneven bars (9.785), floor exercise (9.815) and in the all-around (38.640). She has scored 9.8 or better 12 times in 2020, all in the past six meets.
A trio of Aggies rate among to conference's top five on vault: Cammi Johnson (2nd, 9.780), Cortney Cunningham (T3rd, 9.770) and Ito (T5th, 9.750). A rare miss on floor notwithstanding, Cunningham has been a picture of consistency for the Aggies throughout the season, with 21 of her 24 total scores ranging from 9.700 to 9.875. Johnson came up just shy of her second 39-plus all-around score of the year (38.975), and owns 11 event scores of 9.8-plus this year.
March-in for Saturday's meet takes place at 7 p.m. Live results are available via StatBroadcast (link above).
2020 SEASON NOTES
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 begins calculating this number later in the season... 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.
UC Davis dipped two places to No. 45 in this week's RoadToNationals rankings with an RQS of 194.450... This leads San Jose State (194.415) for the conference's top seed, but sits .820 shy of the all-important 36th slot for an NCAA berth.
ROAD WARRIORS: UC Davis' team total of 195.850 at Boise State stands as the highest road score in program history... Alyssa Ito joins a four-way tie for the individual school beam record (9.925), and becomes the first to do it in a road meet other than a conference championship... Gabby Landess scored 39.250 for the second straight meet... She remains only one of nine Aggies ever to hit that threshold at all, just the fifth to do so in consecutive meets, and the first to do it in back-to-back road meets... Alexis Brown scored at least that high in three straight meets in 2017 (Feb. 11-24) but two took place at the Pavilion... Kelley Hebert has done it twice (Mar. 11-16, Feb. 22-Mar. 1), with each pairing containing a home meet... Dani Judal and Kala DeFrancesco did it in the same two meets: at Cal on March 8, 2015; then at home vs. Washington five days later... For a full listing of 39-point all-arounders, see pages 12-13 in the full weekly release.
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.
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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