The Aggies traveled to Burnham Pavilion on Sunday to compete in the NorCal Quad Meet in Stanford, Calif.
Host Stanford finished first with a score of 194.900, followed by San Jose State in second with 194.300 points. Sacramento State’s score of 191.575 was good for third and UC Davis posted 190.775 to finish fourth.
Sophomore Madeline Kennedy earned a career-high 9.725 on floor to help UC Davis compile a score of 48.375 in the event, their highest combined event score of the meet. Junior Michelle Ho was the top performer for the Aggies in the event with a score of 9.825, placing fourth overall.
Kennedy also turned out a solid performance on vault. Her score of 9.600 led the team in the event, followed by freshman Tiana Montell (9.500) and junior Taryn West (9.525).
Junior Katie Yamamura led UC Davis on bars with a score of 9.725. Yamamura was recently named Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Gymnast of the Week after winning the individual all-around at Arizona State last week. It is the fifth time in her career with UC Davis that she has received the honor and her first since overcoming an injury-plagued sophomore season.
“I’m very encouraged about what [Yamamura] is going to do this year,” head coach John Lavallee said. “She’s a hard worker and competitor… she’s going to have a tremendous season.”
The Aggies’ overall score on bars was further supported by Montell (9.575) and sophomore Regi Solvjkar (9.550), highlighting the young talent in Lavallee’s roster.
On beam, UC Davis was led by a three-way tie between Ho, junior Leah Housman and freshman Kayla DeFrancesco, whose routines all earned scores of 9.650 in the event.
“It was a very intense meet,” said Lavallee. “For the freshmen and sophomores who didn’t compete much last season, it’s a real experience being in that tense of an environment.”
The team’s combined score was a 0.275 improvement on last week’s duel against Arizona State.
UC Davis will return to action in its home opener on Sunday against Air Force. The meet will be the Aggies’ first conference event of the season.
“We had a lot of things that were improved overall [this week],” said Lavallee, “[The team] is ready to perform at home and have the opportunity to perform for a home-town crowd.”
KAITLYN ZUFALL can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.
