University of Washington
California
Husky Gymnasts Grit Out Win Over Cal
February 17, 2006 | Gymnastics
Feb. 17, 2006
Seattle - The Washington Husky gymnastics team (4-10) dominated the California Bears (3-8) through three rotations but had to hold on to eke by its Pac-10 Conference foe 189.875-189.275 at Bank of America Arena on Friday night. Kelly McDonald won bars and beam to lead the injury-depleted Huskies to their first meet win of the season.
The Huskies held a comfortable lead after three events, before moving to floor to close out the meet. The original floor lineup only had five Huskies listed and was whittled down to four after Ashley Houghting had to withdraw with a back injury. Freshman Katie Boyko stepped in as a last resort and scored a 7.400 without ever competing in the event previously for the Huskies.
"We were down to four on floor and I said `Who wants to do floor?' and Katie Boyko said `I can do it. I know I can do it,'" said Head Coach Bob Levesque. "I said `Just do anything.' Basically that saved the meet for us."
"We won with not such a good score, but a win is a win and I think this brought us together tonight. They really pulled together when they knew they had to be a team."
The Huskies jumped out to an early lead after rotation one when they tallied a 48.050 on vault and California scored a 47.174 on bars. Houghting (Welland, Ontario/Northview Heights Secondary) took top honors on vault for the sixth-straight meet thanks to a 9.875. It marked the seventh time this season that the freshman has won vault, tying her for the ninth most vault wins all-time in Husky history.
Kristen Omori (Kirkland, Wash./Juanita HS) was the Huskies next highest finisher, taking third with a 9.725. Cal's Isabel Garcia scored a 9.750 to take second place.
Washington increased its lead in the second rotation thanks to a season-high 48.350 on bars. The Huskies swept the top four places, led by McDonald's (Seattle/Roosevelt HS) 9.825. It was the 20th individual title of McDonald's career, making her the 13th Husky in school history to claim 20 or more titles.
Chelsea Bakken (Mesa, Ariz./Mountain View HS) scored a season-high 9.750 for the second-consecutive meet to take second, followed by a career-high equaling 9.725 by Darcee Schiller (Abbottsford, B.C./Bateman Seconday) and Tori Quandt's (Santa Rosa, Calif./Santa Rosa HS) season-high mark of 9.600.
The Huskies put up a strong effort on beam, sweeping the top three spots led by McDonald's 9.825. Kelly Gilbert (Phoenix, Ariz./Mountain View HS) was second with a 9.775 followed by Omori's 9.700. The Huskies scored a 48.300 as a team compared to Cal's 46.975.
Despite the Huskies struggle on floor, Omori won the individual title, the first of her career, with a 9.800. California took the next three spots, led by Siobhan Luce and Jessica Kelly, who each scored a 9.750.
California swept the all-around as no Husky qualified for the title. Jessica Kelley scored a 38.350 to lead the Bears.
The Huskies return to action next Friday, February 24 for a 7 p.m. meet at Stanford.
Team Scoring Vault Bars Beam Floor Total 1. Washington 48.050 48.350 48.300 45.175 189.875 2. California 47.650 47.175 46.975 47.475 189.275Vault 1. Ashley Houghting, UW 9.875 2. Isabel Garcia, Cal 9.750 3. Kristen Omori, UW 9.725 4. Sibhan Luce, Cal 9.550 5. Katie Boyko, UW 9.525 6. Justine Cephus, Cal 9.500 Jessica Kelley, Cal 9.500 Tori Quandt, UW 9.500 9. Darcee Schiller, UW 9.425 10. Lydia Williams, Cal 9.350 11. Britani Pittulo, Cal 9.275 12. Emily Epsten, UW 9.250 Jessica Brown, UW 9.250 (exh.) Joanna Bennett, Cal 9.200 (exh.)
Bars 1. Kelly McDonald, UW 9.825 2. Chelsea Bakken, UW 9.750 3. Darcee Schiller, UW 9.725 4. Tori Quandt, UW 9.600 5. Siobhan Luce, Cal 9.550 6. Nicki Wells, Cal 9.525 Britani Pittullo, Cal 9.525 Jessica Kelley, Cal 9.525 9. Ashley Houghting, UW 9.450 10. Jennifer Chang, UW 9.325 11. Lydia Williams, Cal 9.050 12. Joanna Bennett, Cal 8.550 Vanna Rocchi, Cal 7.800 (exh.)
Beam 1. Kelly McDonald, UW 9.825 2. Kelly Gilbert, UW 9.775 3. Kristen Omori, UW 9.700 4. Britani Pittullo, Cal 9.675 5. Jessica Kelley, Cal 9.575 6. Ashley Houghting, UW 9.550 7. Tiffany Tam, Cal 9.525 8. Chelsea Bakken, UW 9.450 9. Jennifer Chang, UW 9.175 10. Lydia Williams, Cal 9.150 11. Siobhan Luce, Cal 9.050 12. Justine Cephus, Cal 8.975 Tori Quandt, UW 9.325 (exh.) Keiko Nakamura, Cal 9.250 (exh.)
Floor 1. Kristen Omori, UW 9.800 2. Jessica Kelley, Cal 9.750 Siobhan Luce, Cal 9.750 4. Britani Pittullo, Cal 9.700 5. Darcee Schiller, UW 9.600 6. Tori Quandt, UW 9.250 7. Nicki Wells, Cal 9.250 8. Isabel Garcia, Cal 9.125 Kelly Gilbert, UW 9.125 10. Justine Cephus, Cal 8.250 11. Katie Boyko, UW 7.400
All-Around 1. Jessica Kelley, Cal 38.350 2. Britani Pittullo, Cal 38.175 3. Siobhan Luce, Cal 37.900
