47.2 F
Davis

Davis, California

Friday, March 29, 2024

Gymnastics Preview

Event: NCAA Los Angeles Regional

Teams: UC Davis at UCLA; vs. Arkansas, Iowa State, Arizona, Brigham Young, Arizona State

Where: Pauley Pavilion – Los Angeles, Calif.

When: Saturday at 6 p.m.

Who to watch: Senior Tanya Ho has been here before.

The veteran out of Elk Grove, Calif. will be competing in this weekend’s NCAA regional meet for the second season in a row and the third time in her four years at UC Davis – the most appearances an Aggie gymnast has ever made.

Ho has captured 13 All-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation nods, including vault and all-around for four straight years. Last year she was even named the MPSF conference Gymnast of the Year.

Did you know? In 1998, UC Davis became the only non-scholarship program to have qualified for an NCAA Division I regional meet.

This year, the Aggies were ranked 39th in the final regional qualifying score rankings, marking a school-record average of 193.885.

Preview: Let the chips fall where they may.

A trio including Ho, senior Lida Gehlen and freshman Katie Yamamura will compete as individual qualifiers for the NCAA Los Angeles Regional.

Gehlen won the at-large spot on uneven parallel bars, while Ho and Yamamura earned berths as all-around competitors.

“UC Davis has very good representation at this meet,” Lavallee said. “To have three gymnasts is something we should be proud of. It really speaks to the level of performance that a lot of our student-athletes had this quarter.”

This is Gehlen’s second regional meet in her career as an Aggie gymnast, and the first for Yamamura.

Coach John Lavallee looks to enter this weekend’s meet with the same tenacity the team has demonstrated all year.

“For Tanya and Yami as all-arounders, there is a chance they could hit and sneak on to the next level,” Lavallee said. “Lida was third on bars a couple years ago. But I expect to go in, have the same focus we’ve had in the other 12 meets, do our job, work on our performances and see where the chips fall.”

– Grace Sprague

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