DAVIS, Calif. — The UC Davis gymnastics team will open up the 2024 season at home against Causeway rivals Sacramento State on Sunday, Jan. 7. The meet will begin at 2 p.m. at the University Credit Union Center.
"I am excited for this upcoming season and can't wait to showcase the team's hard work in the fall," remarks head coach,
Tanya Ho. "We have thirteen returners coming off a successful 2023 campaign and three newcomers who will make an immediate impact."
FIRST YEAR AS HEAD COACH
After a sparkling season as interim head coach, Tanya Ho will begin her first official season as head coach of the UC Davis gymnastics team. Ho took the interim position for the 2023 season, and what a season it was. She led the Aggies to their first conference championship since 2015 and earned MPSF Head Coach of the Year honors. She posts her own impressive record, as a notable Aggie alumna. Ho is a 2010 UC Davis grad, who majored in exercise biology and was a majorly successful student-athlete. Ho won 13 All-MPSF awards and nine conference weekly honors. She was the first Aggie gymnast to make three straight trips to the NCAA postseason, the second to make the region meet in back-to-back years as an all-arounder, and the fourth to crack the 39-point barrier in the all-around. She was also inducted into the Cal Aggie Hall of Fame in 2016.
WELCOMING NEW ASSISTANT COACH REBEKAH HILL
Rebekah Hill joins the Ags for her first season as an Assistant Coach after being named by head coach Tanya Ho this past August. Hill came to UC Davis from Bowling Green, where she served as a graduate assistant coach. Before her one-year stint there, Hill was a volunteer assistant coach at her alma mater Oregon State for four seasons. At OSU, Hill worked with all events but specialized with the beam student-athletes and the dance components for floor. A native of Albany, Ore., Hill graduated from Oregon State in 2020 with a degree in psychology with a focus in sports psychology and mental health.
ALL-MPSF RETURNERS
The 2024 team intends to build off the momentum of last season, finishing up the previous year with 18 conference accolades, including 10 first-team selections. Besides Coach Ho's Coach of the Year honor, Amelia Moneymaker also took home a notable achievement winning MPSF Freshman of the Year. We saw first-team honors across multiple events for five Ags. There were also several Aggies named to the second team.
AGGIE DUO DOUBLES BACK ON NCAA REGIONAL APPEARANCE
Keanna Abraham and Megan Ray made their second consecutive appearances at the NCAA Regional Championships. Abraham and Ray were both selected in their freshman and sophomore years to attend the event in Pittsburgh, PA. We saw a record-breaking season from Abraham on the floor (9.975) and the vault (9.925), to cement her name in Aggie history. Ray won four event titles over the course of the 2023 campaign and was able to defend her floor title at the MPSF Championships with a score of 9.90.
DUAL WITH THE HORNETS
The Aggies will battle it out twice this 2024 season with the Hornets. UC Davis won all four regular-season matchups in 2023 versus Sac State, posting a high score of 196.750. The Ags tallied scores of 194.050, 196.750, 196.475, and 196.425 in the progression of meets a year ago.
2024 HOME SCHEDULE
Throughout the 2024 season, UC Davis will host 4 total home meets. The first meet of the season will be at home on Sunday, Jan. 2 in the UCU Center versus Sac State. The Ags are back in Davis at the end of the month on Sunday, Jan. 28 against Gustavus Adolphus. The next home meet takes place on Sunday, Feb. 25 where UC Davis will host San Jose State. The last home meet will be against Illinois State and University of Alaska Anchorage on Friday, Mar. 8.
2023 RECAP
The 2023 season posted a brilliant record for the Aggies, culminating in an MPSF Championship Title.
UC Davis earned 18 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation All-Conference honors, most notably Tanya Ho's Coach of the Year and Amelia Moneymaker's Freshman of the Year. Ho, who earns her third coach of the year honor in the MPSF (2019-UAA Head Coach, 2016-Sacramento State Assistant), is the only individual across all sports in MPSF history to be named an athlete of the year and coach of the year in the conference. Moneymaker is the third freshman in program history to dawn her title, the last Aggie was in 2019.
The standout freshman was a three-time MPSF Freshman of the Week, tying for the second-most weekly awards in the conference last year. She picked up one event title and finished in the top three on three occasions. Moneymaker won the floor exercise with a score of 9.925 against Sacramento State, helping the Aggies post a school record 49.525 in the event and No. 2 all-time school and MPSF total of 196.750.
The Aggies had a great turnout on the All-MPSF first-team front, Keanna Abraham secured a spot on vault and floor, and she was joined by Megan Ray as well as Emma Otsu on first-team vault. Ray also garnered first-team honors on floor, while Otsu was a second-team honoree on bars. Ava Scafani weas named to the first team on beam. Bella Trejo was one of four Ags to earn first-team honors on floor.
The Aggies 2023 MPSF Championship title was the first one since the 2015 season. The Aggies scored a 196.200 to outdistance their competitors and take home the title. The MPSF title is the seventh overall for the Aggies and the highest score at the championship in program history.
NEXT TIME OUT
The Ags will head far north to take on Alaska Anchorage on Friday, Jan. 19, and Sunday, Jan 21 at the Alaska Airlines Center.
