Cliff Kirkpatrick

The No. 8-ranked Oregon State gymnastics team hopes Friday’s rough outing at Louisiana State serves as the final wake-up call so the Beavers finish the season strong. It has been a tough stretch of three straight road meets as they went 1-2.

“There were some great performances, but unfortunately Makayla (Stambaugh) had an off day and Jen (Kesler) had an off day on beam, and Whitney (Watson) started us off with a fall,” coach Tanya Chaplin said Monday. “With all those falls and deductions, that took us out of the running. Without those it would have been a very close meet.”

A trip to No. 9 Utah on Friday against the Utes, No. 18 Penn State and No. 21 Southern Utah is next. The final home meet is against No. 15 Kentucky on March 19.

“Hopefully, we’ll come back and rebound from this,” Chaplin said. “Our focus is to do a few more things and change how a few of them are thinking going into a meet, especially the freshmen to help them close to the postseason.”

What’s been going on with them?

“Sometimes I think they take on too much of the-score-counts-for-everything (mentality) instead of relaxing and staying focused,” Chaplin said. “They think about the uncontrollables.”

What happened with Stambaugh falling? Is she still having issues with the ankle?

“She’s good,” Chaplin said. “We talked a lot after the meet. We have a good plan moving forward with her.”

Is she hitting that wall you talked about that all freshmen do, no matter how good they are?

“She may have a little bit,” Chaplin said. “You can see her changing, too, a little bit, especially the last month. You just don’t know what to expect your first year. It’s a much longer season than club season. How to balance that out, how to keep your emotions going week after week to get up for a competition like that is very different from what club athletes go through. It’s managing the emotion, school and everything else.”

Kelsi Blalock (ankle) and Leilani Alferos (bicycle accident) remain out. Blalock will miss her sixth meet and Alferos is out for her third.

“They are still plugging away,” Chaplin said. “They are getting better but the are not ready to come back, yet.”

That means OSU only has 10 active gymnastics again, but others are healing. Leslie Mak (elbow) is ready to come back on the bars if needed. Laura-Ann Chong (back) is coming back on the floor.

And check out some more video from the LSU meet. The top one is the bars routine. The bottom the beam.

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The Oregon State gymnastics team dropped two spots to No. 8 in the country after the loss at LSU on Friday. The Beavers have an RQS of 196.355.

Alabama is No. 1 (197.155) followed by Oklahoma (196.920), UCLA (196.900), Florida (196.685), Georgia (196.615), Stanford (196.450) and Arkansas (196.375).

The Beavers are No. 4 on the floor (49.265), No. 7 on the beam (49.050), No. 7 on the bars (49.160) and No. 11 on vault (49.165).

Mandi Rodriguez is tied for No. 11 in the all-around (39.385), No. 12 on the beam (9.870) and No. 4 on vault (9.925).

Makayla Stambaugh is tied for No. 5 on the floor (9.910) and Laura-Ann Chong slipped into a tie for No. 4 on the bars (9.900).

Check out my story in Monday’s GT on how the mental choreography goes with the mental training for the Beavers.

Check out these videos of the team doing the floor at LSU.

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Makayla Stambaugh was hurt Feb. 12 against Arizona and not year fully healed.

Oregon State freshman gymnastics prodigy Makayla Stambaugh is still recovering from an ankle injury so her status for Friday’s Pacific-10 Conference meet at Arizona State won’t be known until right before the competition.

“I’m feeling better now,” Stambaugh said. “It has been a rough week. There are no major injuries. If I treat my body and rest, I’ll be better.”

Coach Tanya Chaplin thinks Stambaugh can do the vault and uneven bars and is leaning to keep her out of the balance beam and floor exercise. However, if enough progress isn’t made in time Stambaugh may not be used at all.

“She’s doing pretty well,” Chaplin said. “We are trying to watch it so it doesn’t become chronic and pull her from everything. It’s a week by week basis, but what’s important is having her for the postseason.”

Stambaugh was originally hurt in the last home meet Feb. 12. She didn’t think much about it, but had a bad landing in practice to make it worse.

Chaplin wavered about putting her in the all-around Sunday at UCLA. When she banged her knee on the mount of the uneven bars and hurt her foot during the routine they decided to take her out of the floor and beam.

“It was a little mistake,” Stambaugh said. “You don’t think about it because it’s such an easy skill. I just rubbed my knee, pinched the skin.”

More injuries
Kelsi Blalock (ankle) isn’t expected to make the trip to Arizona State. This will be the fourth competition she missed. “She’s getting stronger, but she not quite ready, yet,” Chaplin said.

Leilani Alferos, who has been an alternate in various events, won’t travel due to being in a bicycle accident. A tire fell off. She took a spill and needed stitches.

“They are all things they can all come back from,” Chaplin said of the three who are hurt. “We always have things like this happen. They are things that they can come back from and get stronger from.”

Leilani Alferos was hurt in a bicycle accident and won’t compete this week.

Rankings
Regional Qualifying Scores (RQS) are now being used for team and individual rankings. They are the average of the second-sixth best scores with three road meets included.

After last week’s loss at UCLA the Beavers dropped to No. 7 in the country with an RQS of 196.150. Oklahoma leads with a 196.615.

The Beavers are No. 2 nationally on the floor exercise (49.180) to the Sooners (49.185), No. 7 on the balance beam (48.945), No. 6 on the uneven bars (49.035) and No. 4 on vault (49.145).

Mandi Rodriguez is No. 4 on the all-around (39.370), tied for No. 4 on the floor (9.890) and tied for No. 7 on the vault (9.890). Becky Colvin is No. 10 on the vault (9.885). Laura-Ann Chong is No. 5 on the bars (9.880).

State of the team
Last weekend was a bad one for the Beavers. They lost, Stambaugh was hurt and they dropped four spots in the rankings. However, it wasn’t all that bad in Chaplin’s view.

“We had a few mental things that happened on a few events — just too many steps out on landings or trips on dance,” Chaplin said. “They did get stronger in the meet. After vault and bars, they re-grouped. I’m glad they switch it, and didn’t let the whole competition crumble. It was a good leaning experience. And I’m hoping it was a good wake-up call for us to get in here and get even more determined and go after it.”

There are only 10 active gymnastics due to injuries, and Stambaugh is only half herself this week. Putting a lineup together has the coaches worried. They are very thin with no alternates in some areas.

Short week
Due to a Sunday road meet followed by a Friday road meet, the Beavers have a really short week. There are only two practices.

“We’ve been planning for it so they know what the plan is,” Chaplin said. “I’m not worried, but it’s concerning with the injuries. It’s all about quality this week. We can’t put in a lot of numbers.”

Olivia Vivian and the Beavers have three more road meets ahead.

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