The Sacramento State gymnastics team will conclude its 2005 regular season with the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships on Friday, March 25, at UC Davis. The meet is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. at The Pavilion and will feature Air Force, Alaska Anchorage, Sacramento State, San Jose State, Seattle Pacific and UC Davis.

The Hornets enter the meet with a 10-8 overall record after defeating Cal State Fullerton on Friday, March 18. In the victory, Sacramento State scored 194.350 — its second-highest score of the season and its second straight above 194.000.

This week, the Hornets will be looking for their third MPSF championship in the last four years and their fifth conference title in six years. The run started in 2000 when Sacramento State won the first of back-to-back Western Independent Conference titles. The team then shifted to the MPSF in 2002 and won the league crown that season and again in 2003. The streak was stopped last year as host San Jose State edged the Hornets 195.925-195.400.

Sacramento State has faced all but one of the MPSF schools (Air Force) during the coarse of the regular season. The team went 3-0 against UC Davis, 1-0 against Alaska Anchorage and 1-1 vs. both Seattle Pacific and San Jose State.

Heading into the week, San Jose State holds a .005 point edge of Sacramento State for the top Regional Qualifying Score in the league. The Spartans are currently ranked sixth in the region with an RQS of 192.945. The Hornets are second in the league and seventh in the region at 192.940. If three teams from the West Region end the year ranked in the top 18 in the country, the West would send six teams to the postseason. If only two finish in the top 18 (as it currently stands) only five teams would advance.

• Head Coach Kim Hughes

In his 25th year at the helm of the Hornet gymnastics program, head coach Kim Hughes has built a program from the ground up and has solidified Sacramento State as a contender in the NCAA West Region and Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

With a career record of 207-192-2, Hughes led the Hornets to back-to-back MPSF Championships in 2002 and 2003 before finishing second last season. He also directed Sacramento State to consecutive Western Independent Championships in 2000 and 2001. In 2002, Sacramento State recorded program highs with consecutive meets above 193 (four), most scores over the 194-plateau (four) and most scores over the 193-mark (eight) in a season. Those statistics helped Hughes earn the MPSF Coach of the Year award.

In 2004, Hughes led the team to its two best scores in school history. The top mark of 195.875 came at the Salbasgeon Suites Invitational at Oregon State. The team also set program records on the vault, beam and floor last season.

Among his other accomplishments, Hughes guided Sacramento State to a second-place finish at the National Invitational Tournament in 2000 and gave the program its first regional bid in 1999 while also being named NCAA Region 1 Coach of the Year.

Hughes earned his first Coach of the Year honor in 1984 when the Hornets were a member of the Div. II Northern California Athletic Conference. A graduate of Chico State in 1976, Hughes joined the Sacramento State women’s gymnastics program in 1977 and was named head coach in 1981. During his tenure, Hughes also guided the Hornets to Div. I status in 1992.

• The Breakdown

In what can only be compared to football’s Bowl Championship System (BCS) formula, gymnastics uses a unique system to determine national rankings. The system (Regional Qualifying Score) takes a team’s top six scores, of which only three can come from home meets, throws out the top mark and then creates a five-meet average. That average is then used to rank every team in the country in both national and regional systems.

At the end of the year, the top 18 teams in the country are evenly dispersed among six regionals. The remaining three spots at each regional are then filled from teams within that region. In the event that three teams from the West are not ranked in the top 18 at the end of the season, only five schools from the West Region would go to the regionals. Currently, only UCLA (third) and Oregon State (12th) are in the top 18. Washington dropped to 23rd last week and Stanford is tied for 29th.

Along with the six team entries, the NCAA will also invite the top five all-arounders and a specialist for each event. These competitors will come from team’s inside the region that did not qualify. If the season ended today, the Hornets would send Stefanie Aeder on floor, Alexis Tsurumoto on bars and Melissa Genovese on beam.

Heading into this weekend’s competition, the race between Sacramento State and San Jose State is as close as you can get. The Spartans lead by .005 and both teams’ lowest counting score is 191.950. Under these circumstances, as long as both teams score above 191.950 on Friday, the team with the higher score will likely finish sixth in the West Region.

• History Lesson

Since the inception of the MPSF for women’s gymnastics in 2002, Sacramento State has had great success at the championships. The team captured the first MPSF title with a 194.900 at Air Force. That year, Toni Peterson won the all-around title and also finished first on vault and floor. Nirvana Zaher, then a freshman, also won on beam.

The following year, the Hornets hosted the meet and again finished first with 194.925. Binta Coleman captured the bars crown and Zaher finished first on vault.

In 2004, host San Jose State snapped the team’s streak while Sacramento State was second with 195.400. Zaher earned her third MPSF title while repeating in the vault and Coleman was the all-around champion.

• News and Notes

Even with the tougher scoring this season, Sacramento State’s back-to-back scores above 194.000 puts this year’s team in rare company. Only one team (2004) has scored 194.000 in three-straight meets. That team also ended the year hot, capped by a 195.400 at the MPSF Championships. The 2002 team also ended its season with back-to-back scores above the mark…Aeder closed out her home career by tying her own school record with a 9.950 on floor. The Portland, Ore., native has now won seven times this year and has twice been named MPSF Gymnast of the Week…the Hornets scored 49.275 on floor against Cal State Fullerton. The score was a season high and ranks fifth in school history.