Event: Beauty and the Beast
Teams: UC Davis vs. Seattle Pacific
Where: The Pavilion
When: Friday at 7 p.m.
Who to watch: Senior Lida Gehlen led a 1-2-3 sweep on uneven parallel bars against Air Force on Saturday.
Her 9.850 score helped UC Davis earn a season-high total of 191.575.
The Sun City, Calif. native earned All-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation honors on bars in all of her first three seasons.
Gehlen led the conference last year on bars, scoring her season-best 9.860 twice – once at Sacramento State and once at Seattle Pacific.
Did you know: The Aggies’ team average of 190.731 is higher than any other MPSF team’s season high score.
Individual Aggie gymnasts hold the top scores on balance beam, bars and vault.
Preview: With four weeks of the season in the books, coach John Lavallee stresses the importance of continuing full throttle.
“It’s time to put our foot down on the accelerator and start to take off,” Lavallee said after last week’s 191.575-185.300 victory over Air Force.
After winning three consecutive road meets, the Aggies will host Seattle Pacific on Friday as the two teams compete for the third time this season.
The squads last met two weeks ago when UC Davis came out on top in a triangular meet with Sacramento State.
In that contest, seniors Tanya Ho and Kendall McCann along with freshman Katie Yamamura swept the all-around with scores of 38.375, 38.100 and 37.775 respectively.
In short, the Aggies have been dominant. Now, they will look to improve on some of the smaller details.
“At this point in the season, we’ll start to zero in on some smaller things,” Lavallee said. “I think the team has gained some confidence, and you’ll see that confidence. It’s part of the maturation and development process that takes place in competition.”
The Aggies will face the Falcons in the fifth edition of the Beauty and the Beast event. While the gymnastics is competing, the UC Davis wrestling squad will face off against Pac-10 rival San Francisco State. Festivities begin at 7 p.m. in the Pavilion.
– Grace Sprague
