By Madyson Montoya — Staff Writer
San Jose State gymnastics hosted its last meet of the season and celebrated its five seniors, but was defeated by No. 14 UC Berkeley, 196.100 to 193.725.
The Spartans were only able to take the victory in two events, bars and all-around. Junior Taylor Chan was the only one in the all-around event and finished with a 38.625.
SJSU had a devastating start as freshman Carli Orcutt fell in the vault and was not able to compete in the other three events. This put the team in a tough spot but they managed to finish out the rest of the routines with minor bobbles.
“It threw everybody a little bit,” said first-year head coach Joanne Bowers. “We had to regroup and say they’re going to take good care of her, we have to compartmentalize it and we’ve got a meet to go.”
Although it was senior night, the middleclassmen truly stood out in all of the events.
Juniors Chelsey Andrada and Chan tied as SJSU’s top finishers in the vault with a score of 9.775. This score ties Chan’s season-high vault score and ties Andrada’s second season-high score.
The second event of bars brought sophomore Nikki Duggan her season high score of a 9.800. Chan scored a 9.800 as well and the two led SJSU in that event.
Shining senior Stephanie Relova killed the beam with stick after stick, leading her to finish with a 9.725.
“Beam has always been one of my favorite events,”Relova said, “and I was actually really nervous for today just because of everything that has been happening.” The last event was floor, a typical SJSU strong suit. SJSU gave great entertaining performances, but it was not enough to match the difficulty of the Cal gymnasts.
Chan finished with a 9.850, leaving the opportunity for her seventh 9.900 for next week.
The meet ended with a senior ceremony featuring Relova, Ellie Pascoe-Long, Josalyn Ray, Kaprece Nadonza and Michelle Shalit.
“I don’t think the season was what any of us would have expected our freshman year,” said Shalit. “We all just really embraced our roles this year and I feel like we all went out on a high.” The Spartans will face Cal again in Berkeley next week along with Sacramento State and Illinois Sunday at 2 p.m.
