Cliff Kirkpatrick

The No. 5-ranked Oregon State gymnastics team heads to Ohio State for a 1 p.m. nonconference meet Saturday afternoon. Here’s a link to the meet preview in Saturday’s GT.

The Beavers were thrilled with the season-opening performance last week. Rookies and veterans pulled together.

“It went great,” senior Laura-Ann Chong said. “It exceeded my expectations for a first meet. We were around the scores we were shooting for. I was proud to take my routines in the gym and replicate them in Gill. Now I know what to do keep that going for the rest of the season.”

Like all sports, the second contest should yield drastic improvement. The Beavers were hard at work during the week polishing off routines.

“We worked on details, cleaning up the little things that went wrong,” senior Whitney Watson said. “We have to work on sticks. That’s what’s going to shave down deductions.”

The biggest test this week is getting the four freshmen, and everyone else too, up to speed on the road. OSU gymnasts draw on inspiration from the large fired up home crowds.

“We have to keep our team mentality for road meets,” Watson said. “It’s a different arena, our crowd isn’t there. And we have to get use to the feel of the equipment.”

Notes
The Beavers are No. 1 in the nation in bars (49.400). … They are No. 2 in the Pac-10 on the floor (48.925), No. 3 on vault (48.900) and No. 3 on beam (48.400). … Freshman Makayla Stambaugh is No. 5 in the all-around (39.275). … Chong is tied for ninth on the beam (9.850). Chong and Leslie Mak are tied for second on the bars (9.925).

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1. Cliff: Gymnastics preview
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3. Cliff: Gymnastics notes
4. Cliff: Gymnastics notebook
5. Cliff: Gymnastics rankings (updated)