• The Sacramento State gymnastics team will welcome San Jose State to the Hornets Nest on Friday, Jan. 27, for a 7 p.m. meet. The contest will serve as the Hornets’ annual Think Pink Meet. Each team will wear commemorative leotards promoting breast cancer awareness. All proceeds from the meet will go to Mercy Hospital/Mercy Foundation.
• Sacramento State is 1-4 on the season following a loss at No. 17 Boise State last Friday. In the meet, Kalliah McCartney finished first on beam and set a career high in the all-around and Kailey Hansen tied her career high with a 9.875 on floor.
• San Jose State is 3-2 overall with its losses coming at No. 8 Stanford and No. 1 UCLA. Last week, the team had a quick turnaround, defeating Seattle Pacific at home on Friday before taking on UCLA on Sunday afternoon in Westwood.
• Senior Thomasina Wallace is the leader for SJSU. The all-arounder qualified for the NCAA Championships as a freshman in the all-around and has been one of the top gymnasts in the WAC during her career.
• Sacramento State leads the all-time series, 38-34-1. The Hornets are 13-9 overall against SJSU at home.
• Earlier this season, San Jose State defeated Sacramento State, 194.300-191.575, at the NorCal Quad Meet which was hosted by Stanford.
THE LAST TIME OUT
The Sacramento State gymnastics team continued its steady improvement to begin the year with a season-high score of 191.875 but it was not enough as the Hornets fell to No. 17 Boise State (196.175), Friday night at Taco Bell Arena.
For the second time during the week, the Hornets were near perfect through the first three rotations but ended the meet with troubles on beam. After scoring at least 48 points in each of the first three events, the team saw two of its first three gymnasts fall and another two miss connections on beam resulting in a team score of 46.625.
The Hornets began the meet on bars, scoring 48.150. Nicole Meiller, who returned to the lineup after being sidelined last week, led the team with a 9.750. The second rotation took the team to vault where it totaled 48.625.
The Hornets continued to shine on floor with a team total of 48.475. Hansen finished second overall with a 9.875 while Katie Osaki and McCartney tied for seventh with 9.700s.
The one bright spot on beam for Sacramento State was McCartney who finished first with a 9.825 — also a career high. From that point, the next highest score on the team came from Hansen who scored 9.525.
HANSEN NAMED VERIZON WAC SPECIALIST OF THE WEEK
Junior Kailey Hansen was named the Verizon Western Athletic Conference Specialist of the Week, it was announced today. The honor is the first for Hansen this season.
Last week at Boise State, Hansen matched her career high on floor with a 9.875 to finish second. The Ventura, Calif., native also had success on vault (9.725) and beam (9.525).
In three floor routines this year, Hansen is averaging 9.700 — the highest on the team.
KEEPING IT GOING
Freshman Kalliah McCartney raised her all-around score for third consecutive meet. The Vancouver, Wash., native scored 39.025 to finish second behind Boise State’s Brittany Potvin-Green. McCartney set her personal best in the vault (9.800), bars (9.700) and beam (9.825) en route to her all-around total.
Through three collegiate meets, McCartney is averaging 38.608 in the all-around. She also became the first Hornet to break 39.000 in the all-around since Marina Borisova in 2009.
The highest all-around score recorded by a Hornet freshman came in 2001 when Binta Coleman scored 39.175 at the Western Independent Conference Championships.
THIS & THAT
McCartney was not the only Hornet to set career highs at Boise State. On vault, Emiko Ono and Kaila Kilwein scored 9.725 and 9.675, respectively…the team will wear black leotards on Friday with pink breast cancer ribbons…through the first three meets last season, Sacramento State’s high score was 190.950. The team did not score above 192.000 until Feb. 7.
