By Nick Austin – Senior Staff Writer | Jaudai Lopes competing in the floor routine against Oregon State (photo courtesy of Anfisa Pitchkhadze – spear reporter)
The Spartans competed in their last home regular season meet of the year as they faced Olympic medalist Jade Carey and the Oregon State gymnastics squad Sunday afternoon.
SJSU was outscored 195.750 to Oregon State’s 197.025, but the Spartans were able to put up their highest team total of the season so far.
“To be with the team getting our team high score for the season today was just super special,” Senior Katherine Weyhmiller said. “I’m just really happy that it all worked out today.”
Weyhmiller scored a team-high 9.850 on the uneven bars as the team scored 48.800 overall on the event.
On Vault, the Spartans ended with a team score of 49.125 which was the third-highest score in school history.
Graduate student Jaudai Lopes and junior Mikaela Pitts led the Vault squad with a pair of 9.850 scores. This score also marked a career-best score for Pitts.
Sophomore Devyn Valuch was the only Spartan to qualify for the all-around, finishing in second with an all-around score of 39.050. Valuch finished second behind Oregon State senior Jade Carey, as she scored a 39.825 in the all-around.
Carey earned two 9.975 scores, one on the balance beam and one on the vault.
“She’s amazing to watch,” head coach Joanne Bowers said. “I think it was really good for our team to get to see that and compete against that.”
Bowers noted that she told the team to watch Carey during the meet and to remember that moment.
“I told the team today, ‘I hope you guys watch her and then for the rest of your life, you can tell your children, ‘I competed against Jade Carey,’” Bowers said.
However, the memorable moments didn’t stop there.
Katherine Weyhmiller, along with the other seniors Trinity Johnson and Sophia Konieczny were honored after the meet as this was their last home meet of their collegiate careers.
“These are my sisters – we trained together, we live together, we hang out together so to be able to spend this day with them was really special,” Konieczny said. “I’m grateful this sport brought me them.”
While there are still more meets to come before the season is over, it wasn’t too early to have some reflection on the college careers for these seniors.
“It’s just this full circle moment from being here, starting out as a freshman, and then getting all the way here today and doing all the events that I’ve been working so hard the last four years for,” Weyhmiller said.
Coach Bowers acknowledged that while this isn’t the last meet of the season, the moment can take hold of you.
“It’s always bittersweet during the senior meet,” Bowers said. “Usually we have other meets after the senior meet, so the whole time I’m saying to myself ‘This really isn’t the last meet’ to keep the tears from coming.”
The team will get another opportunity to test themselves before the Mountain West Championships as they will travel to Cal in a quad meet against #6 Cal, #12 Stanford and #25 Arizona State at 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 16 at the Haas Pavilion.
