The Barometer Online

Issue date: 4/3/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Jeff Wick Junior Mandi Rodriguez performs her floor routine against UCLA earlier in the 2009 season. Rodriguez was recently named Pac-10 Gymnast of the Year.

Last year, regionals for Oregon State was not the trek that it is this season, as the gymnastics team travels across the country to Ohio to compete in the Central Regional Championship.

After a week away from a competitive gymnastics, the No. 8 Beavers will return to action Saturday on the Ohio State campus. Oregon State is the second seeded squad in the Central Regional behind only the No. 5 LSU Tigers.

"I think it was a good week to have a bye because we didn't have school either," said sophomore Jen Kesler. "It was kind of a mental break from school and a mental break competition. We still had an intersquad, so we still felt the same routine for competition."

During conference meets, Oregon State scored the same as LSU had in its SEC meet. Both teams scored 196.550 in the conference championship meets, a score which was OSU's third highest team score of the year.

"It is so hard to compare scores across the country," head coach Tanya Chaplin said. "We feel good about the gymnastics we're doing right now and we are focused in on us. We are confident in our abilities and need to focus in on what we're controlling and forget everything else."

For the third time this season, regon State will begin its rotation on the uneven bars. Oregon State is the No. 8 team in the nation on the bars and is led by the two gymnasts who wrap up its uneven parallel bars lineup. At No. 4 in the nation, freshman Leslie Mak has won nine individual titles this season, six of which on the uneven bars.

Joining Mak at the end of the Oregon State bars lineup is Kesler, who is ranked No. 8 on the apparatus. Kesler has claimed five individual titles during the 2009 season. Kesler and Mak joined together to take the bars title at the Pac-10 championships with scores of 9.900. Mak and Kesler posted season-highs of 9.975 and 9.925, respectively.

After the bars, Oregon State will move to its best-ranked event, the balance beam. OSU is No. 5 on beam despite a shaky performance on the apparatus during the Pac-10 Championships. Oregon State began the meet on the beam posting a 48.725, down from its season average of 49.205.

Continued...

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