Oregon State Gymnastics: Beavers Season comes to an end in Raleigh Regional

The ladies of the Oregon State Gymnastics team went into the Raleigh Regional with the intention of putting on a performance that would propel themselves to nationals for the 2nd straight year. However, it just wasn't meant to be this season.

The Beavers headed into the regionals ranked 14th in the nation. In the same Raleigh Regional, Oregon State faced No. 2 LSU, No. 11 Nebraska, No. 19 George Washington, No. 20 North Carolina State, and unranked Maryland; a tough lineup of teams to face, to put it mildly. In addition to this tough slate of teams, Oregon State would have to place in the top 2 amongst all other teams just to advance to nationals in St. Louis.

As great as this squad has competed throughout the year, a trip to nationals just wasn’t in the cards this season. The final score from the Raleigh Regional is as follows:

1. LSU - 197.675
2. Nebraska - 197.525
3. NC State - 196.050
4. Maryland - 195.850
5. George Washington - 195.425
6. Oregon State - 194.975

Even though the Beavs came in last place in this regional, the Beavers were actually in the hunt for the qualifying spot heading into the final event, the balance beam. The Beavers had been competing throughout the entire meet before sadly falling apart in the final rotation. Several ladies on this squad had season and career lows in this event, which ultimately dragged down the Beavers overall score. Had Oregon State performed up to their usual standards on the beam, which ranked as 18th in the nation, the story of the overall standing would have been much different; not to mention that the Beavs would have been battling for the qualifying spot with Nebraska.

As difficult as this end was for the Beavs, there’s no denying that this was another successful season for head coach Tanya Chaplin and the women on this gymnastics team. This group of ladies managed to return to regionals despite having a squad that returned only 9 of their 24 routines from the 2017 campaign. It also can’t be dismissed that this gymnastics team went through several lineup changes throughout the year to cope with injury issues throughout the season.

Even with these struggles, the team battled to 14th in the nation heading into regionals; and received countless All-Academic honors in addition to a few nods for some of our ladies that made the All-American team. To continue the upbeat mood on the future of this team, this gymnastics squad boasts a young team that should be returning the majority of their routines for next year. This includes exciting sophomores Destinee Davis, Halli Briscoe, Isis Lowery, and Alyssa Minyard in addition to current All-American freshman, Kaitlyn Yanish. There will be a bountiful amount of optimism heading into next season with a roster as young and as successful as this next year’s will be.

Although the season ended in a disappointing fashion for the Lady Beavs today, there is no denying that this team has a bright future ahead of them. The success they achieved this year in addition to the youth of the roster will create a promising outlook heading into next season. All Beaver fans should be excited for next season to see this team take the floor. And yes, slight gymnastic pun intended there.