By Taylor Lupetti (@tayclupetti ):
W.A.R. “we are ready” might have been the San Jose State gymnastics motto last season, but after stepping into first place territory at the 2017 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championship, it changed.
The gymnasts knew they needed to defend their first-place title, so they preached the number 212. That number is the boiling point of water and a reminder that something as small as one point or one degree can make a huge difference.
“Push yourself to work at 212 … it’s what separates the good from the great,” said junior Michelle Shalit at the beginning of the season.
With a total score of 195.975 at the MPSF Championships, the Spartans broke the school record previously set this season and the MPSF high score as well.
After breaking personal and team records all year, everything the team worked for brought another conference win.
“We started off with bars and we did the best that we had ever done,” said senior Kaitlin Won in an interview with SJSU Athletics. “We knew right then that we were going to have this flow and energy for the rest of the meet.
With a program-high score of 195.975 at the March 24 MPSF championships, the team accomplished what it set out for in November — to repeat its conference championship season.
The gymnasts understood the enormity of the task heading into the season, and were motivated to set personal bests as well.
Won scored a career-tying 39.225 in the all-around to win the title at the Colorado Springs event. She became the third Spartan in SJSU history to take that title.
Sophomore Chelsey Andrada became the fourth Spartan in school history to win an MPSF vault title with a career-best 9.875 score.
“Going into it, we were ahead by a lot so I wasn’t really stressed that much,” Andrada said in an interview with SJSU Athletics. “I went into it not overthinking it, just doing what I can and — I stuck it!”
For the first time as a Spartan, sophomore Taylor Chan competed in the all-around this season. She broke her personal record against No. 3 UCLA earlier this month, earning a 9.900 on the floor, a 9.800 on beam, 9.525 on bars and vaulting a 9.900 career-high to rack up a 39.125 overall.
Shalit scored a 9.825 personal record at the MPSF Championships on the beam. Her score combined with the rest of the beam team set the highest beam score in the SJSU record book with 49.275.
“We went to beam and we all nailed it,” Won said in her interview with SJSU Athletics. “We hit our top record score and it was just amazing.”
Before heading to Colorado Springs, Colo. for the MPSF Championships, six Spartans were honored with All-MPSF recognitions.
Chan was named first team honoree on vault, floor and all-around. Won was first team on bars and all-around, and was named second team on beam. And Junior Ellie Pascoe-Long was given first team honors on vault and floor.
In a February meet against UC Davis, Pascoe-Long earned a career-high 9.900 on the floor to tie for first place.
Also taking first team on vault was junior Kaprece Nadonza, a second team selection on the bars.
Both Andrada and junior Stephanie Relova were given first team honors on beam.
The last Spartan team to win back-to-back championships was women’s soccer in 2009 and 2010. With gymnastics now added to the list, a pathway for female athletes at SJSU has been repaved.
“We had this feeling that we could do this and get back-to-back champs,” Won said to SJSU Athletics. “We just wanted to do it for our team and for this school because we need more representation, especially in female sports.”