Amelia Moneymaker caps off gymnastics season by placing No. 7 all around at NCAA regionals
Although the Aggies did not advance to NCAA regionals as a team, Moneymaker competed to represent UC Davis in Corvallis, Ore.
By COLINA HARVEY — sports@theaggie.org
The UC Davis gymnastics team’s season came to a close on April 3 when Amelia Moneymaker, a fourth-year sustainable environmental design major, competed at the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) regional meet. The meet capped off a successful season for Moneymaker, who has been a force during her time with the team.
Over the course of the regular season, the team struggled to place well in meets. In all three of their Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) meets, the Aggies fell to their opponents.
A high point of the season was on Jan. 23 when the Aggies took first place in a quad meet hosted by California State University, Sacramento (Sac State), one of their MPSF competitors. Along with UC Davis and Sac State, Western Michigan University and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater also competed at the meet. Moneymaker took first place in both beam and floor, second in bars and was the all-around individual winner.
Aside from Moneymaker, the following Aggies also posted scores that landed them in a top five spot for a rotation: Alana Kim, a third-year physics major; Avah Reichow, a second-year biological sciences major; Jehaan Poonja, a fourth-year civil engineering major; Molly Osborne, a first-year human biology major; and Avery Marshall, a second-year biological sciences major.
The team’s other victory this season was on Feb. 20 against the College of William & Mary Griffins. A highlight of this meet was Moneymaker scoring a 9.950 on floor, tying her career-high score. The Aggies beat the Griffins in every rotation in this meet except for bars.
After the regular season wrapped up, the Aggies headed to the MPSF championship, where they competed against Sac State, Southern Utah University (SUU) and the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA).
As a team, SUU came first in every rotation except for beam, where Sac State took the win. SUU also had individual wins from athletes in every category except for beam, where Moneymaker tied with Sac State’s Kaitlyn Driessen for first. Moneymaker also placed second in bars and tied for third in vault, in addition to her win on the beam. These scores were enough to give her the all-around-first-place win with a score of 39.375. Jadyn Wakita, a third-year psychology major, also gave an impressive beam routine, tying with Sac State’s Athena Jones and UAA’s Claudia Lessig for third place.
Moneymaker’s performance in the conference championship meet gained her a spot as an individual in the NCAA regional meet in Corvallis, Ore. Her strongest routine of the meet was floor, where she scored a 9.900, tying for second place. Moneymaker secured seventh place overall, with a score of 39.150.
Despite her strong performance, Moneymaker was not selected to advance past the regional round, ending the team’s season.
Written by: Colina Harvey— sports@theaggie.org