Teams: UC Davis at Cal State Fullerton
Where: Titan Gym – Fullerton, Calif.
When: Sunday at noon
Who to watch: After sitting out the San Jose State meet due to injury, junior Michelle Bobonski bounced back in impressive fashion, posting a season-best on both vault (9.750) and beam (9.575).
The vault score was good enough to earn her the individual win, and the score on beam was instrumental in giving the Aggies a season-best on that apparatus, as well as their first 191-plus score of the year.
Did you know? Though the gymnasts will undoubtedly be exhausted from a tough competition when Super Bowl XLIII kicks off, many will have a special reason to watch: former UC Davis football standout Elliot Vallejo.
The Arizona Cardinals offensive lineman married last year’s gymnastics team captain, Carrie Lujan, in July of 2007. Vallejo will give Aggie gymnasts – and indeed all Aggie fans – extra motivation to watch this Sunday.
Preview: After posting a season-best score and dominating win at home against Air Force, the Aggies head to Fullerton looking to keep their momentum alive.
“We’re going to have our hands full,” said coach John Lavallee. “Fullerton has a very good team this year. They’ve been putting up 192s and 193s. We’re going to need to bring our ‘A‘ game to Fullerton to get the job done for sure.“
One key player who will have to make an impact on Sunday is junior Tanya Ho. The reigning Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Gymnast of the Week won the beam, uneven bars and all-around last weekend despite a sub-par performance on the floor.
“Having more meets under my belt builds my confidence,” said Ho. “I’m glad that I hit three events, but I really want to hit floor already. Falling on the last pass again is really frustrating.“
The Aggies have improved their team score at each outing thus far, building confidence that they can keep putting up big numbers as the season rolls on.
“One thing we saw [last week] was fights for big performances,” said senior co-captain Adee Schoffman. “Now what we need to work on is our landings and connections. We have improved about half a point every week. If we can keep doing that, we’ll be in good shape.“
– Alex Wolf-Root
