Cliff: Gymnastics notebook

Laura-Ann Chong on the bars in a home meet.
The Oregon State gymnastics team dropped to No. 7 in the country after defeating California on Sunday with a score of 196.375. The season average score, which rankings are based, is 196.010.

The funny thing about the drop was that was the first meet of the season the Beavers didn’t count a fall.

Oklahoma (196.435) is No. 1 with Alabama (196.405), Arkansas (196.120), Utah (196.060), UCLA (196.042) and Florida (196.020) right behind the Sooners.

Mandi Rodriguez is ranked No. 12 in the all-around (39.260) and Makayla Stambaugh is tied for 16th (39.200).

Rodriguez and Becky Colvin are tied for eighth on the vault (9.875), Laura-Ann Chong is tied for 14th on the beam (9.830), Melanie Jones is fourth on the floor (9.900) after one competition with Rodriguez tied for seventh (9.890) and Stambaugh tied for ninth (9.885).

Leslie Mak is No. 1 on the uneven bars (9.925), but she has only competed in the first event of the season due to her elbow injury.

The Beavers scored a 49.475 on the floor. That was the third highest score in the country this season. Oklahoma had a 49.600 and Stanford had a 49.575.

Another injury
Freshman Kelsi Blalock was hurt during warm-ups Sunday. She injured her left ankle on a vault. Her status will be determined later in the week.

Jones took her place on the vault and floor. She scored a 9.675 on the vault and had the stellar floor routine.

“There were a lot of positives (in the meet); the floor team was spectacular,” coach Tanya Chaplin said. “They did a great job of focusing in after Kelsi got hurt and got the job done. There are still some areas to clean up and we’ll be back in the gym this week to work on those things.”

The schedule
It’s an odd week coming off a road Sunday meet. The Beavers will only have one hard practice Tuesday with today and Wednesday being off days.

They face off with Pacific-10 Conference rival No. 18 Arizona at 7 p.m. on Friday. After that, there’s only one more home meet March 19 against Kentucky.

There are four straight road meets after the Arizona contest at UCLA, Arizona State, LSU and Utah.

Kelsi Blalock warming up at home meet.

To see more photos from throughout the season, check out the GT’s photo gallery here.