Beavers Put Up Season-High Performance To Place Third At NCAA Regionals

SEATTLE – The Oregon State gymnastics team left it all on the floor Thursday evening, recording a season-high at the NCAA Seattle Regionals to end the year in third place inside Alaska Airlines Arena. Oregon State posted its seventh 197 of the 2022 campaign with a season-best 197.425.

Oregon State pushed it all day and had its best meet of the season as a unit. The Beavers hit 23-of-24 routines. In the second session, Oregon State kept it close wire to wire, but in the end placed third behind No. 4 Utah (197.800) and Stanford (197.450) who placed second. Illinois rounded out the night with a score of 197.375.

The Beavers could not have asked for a better start from vault squad after collecting a 49.325. Kaitlin Garcia (9.80) started the event strong, while Karlie Chavez (9.80) and Lauren Letzsch (9.80) tallied solid scores to follow. Sydney Gonzales continued the momentum and setup up the final two teammates by scoring a 9.825. Madi Dagen started her terrific night in the all-around by score a 9.925 (tied for third on the event behind Utah's Alexia Burch's 9.950), which was then followed by Jade Carey's regional-high 9.975.

Through the first rotation, Oregon State sat in third place, ahead of Utah. The Beavers suffered a minor setback on bars having to drop the fifth score but delivered a 49.150. In her final meet of her career, senior Colette Yamaoka started the rotation off with a 9.80. Carley Beeman and Dagen both added 9.85s while Carey put the cherry on top with a 9.925.

Midway through the meet, the Beavers dropped to fourth place after Illinois, Stanford and Utah continued to bring it as well. Beam was led by Carey's second 9.975 in the anchor spot, along with Ariana Young's career-best 9.90 and a pair of 9.85s from Dagen and Letzsch. With the beam set taking care of business after posting a 49.475, Oregon State continued to apply pressure but remained in fourth.

Oregon State needed a big and final push from floor to walk away with second and advance to Saturday's regional final. Young once again came up big as the leadoff with a 9.85 while Kayla Bird added a 9.875 as momentum seemed to build for the Orange & Black. Letzsch added a beautiful 9.90 routine, finishing tied for third on the event. Dagen concluded her all-around performance with a 9.875 performance and Carey earned the event title on floor with her third 9.975 of the night.

Coming down to the final routine to decide the Beavers' fate, senior Kaitlyn Yanish was inserted back into the lineup after suffering an injury back at Arizona on March 4. The super senior concluded her lustrous Beaver career with a 9.825 but it wasn't enough for OSU to jump Stanford.

Carey concluded her all-around performance with a career-best, regional-best and program-best 39.850. The score is also the second highest score in the country behind Florida's Trinity Thomas' 39.875 on Thursday night. Dagen finished the evening with a 39.500 to take fourth at the Seattle regional.

Oregon State ends the season with its first ever Pac-12 Regular Season Championship after advancing to its 47th consecutive postseason.

For more information on the Oregon State gymnastics team, follow the club's official Twitter account at Twitter.com/BeaverGym, by Facebook at Facebook.com/BeaverGym or on Instagram at Instagram.com/BeaverGym.

OUR MISSION
Oregon State Athletics strives to Build Excellent Authentic Visionary Student-Athletes (Go BEAVS).