Sacramento State

Gymnastics 2/8/2024 12:16:00 PM

GYMNASTICS TO COMPETE AT AIR FORCE IN THREE-TEAM MEET ON FRIDAY

Hornets coming off highest score of the year

OPENING PASS

A week after securing its first win of the season and recording its best score of the year, the Sacramento State gymnastics team will compete in its first three-team meet when it travels to Air Force and also meets Southeast Missouri on Friday, Feb. 9. The meet will begin at 6 p.m. PT from Cadet West Gym on the United States Air Force Academy campus.
The Hornets scored 194.675 and were able to defeat UC Davis by five one-hundredths of a point last Friday at The Nest. The win improved the team to 1-4 overall.
Links to live stats and a video stream for this week's meet can be found on hornetsports.com.

OPPONENT PREVIEW

Air Force will be competing at home for the first time this season. The Falcons have had three road meets this season, most recently scoring 193.500 in a loss at San Jose State last weekend. Freshman Maggie Slife leads the team on vault, beam and floor as well as the all-around. Slife was named the Mountain West Gymnast of the Week, Freshman of the Week and co-Beam Specialist of the Week after her last meet.
Air Force is coached by Jennifer Green who is in her fourth season. The Hornets lead the all-time series with the Falcons, 24-8, but have come up short in four of the last five meets. Air Force has also won the last four meetings in its home gym.
No stranger to multi-team meets, Southeast Missouri has already competed in two quads and a tri this season with only two dual meets leaving the Redhawks with a 4-5-1 overall record. SEMO last competed on Jan. 31 at Illinois State where it fell 195.600-194.475. Taylor Ingle is the team's top all-arounder with an average of 39.192. Ingle also leads the team on beam (9.770) and is second on floor (9.870).
Ashley Lawson is in her sixth season as the head coach at SEMO. The two teams have met just once before with Sacramento State pulling out a narrow 193.150-193.100 win at The Nest on Jan. 24, 2014.

A LOOK AT LATEST ACTION

With the Hornets trailing by .025 points following their final floor performance, the team was given new life which led to a 194.675-194.625 victory over UC Davis. During the third rotation, Athena Jones' dismount was affected after the end cap of the beam was accidentally kicked off during her routine. By the time the officials and meet referee were able to make a decision, the fourth rotation was already underway. Following Sacramento State's time on floor, Jones was allowed to re-perform her beam dismount and finished with a 9.650. That score improved the team total by .150 and gave the Hornets their first win over the Aggies since 2018 and earned head coach Melissa Genovese her first career win.

A LONG TIME COMING

Sacramento State will unveil a new training facility early in the 2024 season. The building, which is located on Folsom Blvd. and is within walking distance of campus, will be mark the first time the Hornets will have access to its own facility in school history.
The training site will have a full size competition floor and several sets of the other apparatus. The facility is expected to open in February 2024.

WELCOME TO THE CLUB

Both Sarah Fitzgerald and Rylin Zimmerman earned their first collegiate individual event victory last Friday against UC Davis. Fitzgerald picked up the title on bars after scoring a season best 9.825. Zimmerman added a 9.800 on beam to tie the Aggies' Ava Scafani for the top spot.
The pair join Kara Houghton as the only Hornets to win an event title this season. Houghton scored 9.875 on bars against San Jose State on Jan. 14. Grace Gilman, Sarah Lutrel and Emma Morgenthaler have event wins from previous seasons.

ONWARD AND UPWARD

Sacramento State has improved its team score in each meet this season. The team's current average of 194.090 is the second highest in school history through five meets. The only team with a higher mark at this point of the year was the 2016 team which had an average of 194.440 on the way to winning the MPSF Championship.
A couple of promising features on this year's team has been its consistency and depth. The Hornets have yet to have an individual score of 9.900 or higher and have not broken 49 points on an event this season. Instead, the team has regularly counted five scores which have all been closely bunched.
The team's two all-arounders, Emma Morgenthaler and Sarah Lutrel, are also waiting for their breakthrough meet. The pair scored 39.250 and 39.150 last season, respectively, but have yet to crack 39 points in 2024. Lutrel's high this season of 38.950 came at home against SJSU while Morgenthaler tallied 38.900 at the Spartans.
Sacramento State has shown the ability to be a 195-plus team this season but has yet to have a meet where all four event hit. If you add up the season highs on each event, the team would score 195.075.

NEWS & NOTES

The Hornets have used 12 gymnasts in their lineup this season with a third of those coming from true freshmen. Athena Jones, Jillianne Lastra and Rose Wilson have been in the lineup in all five meets while Mallory Barron has competed in two. Jones, Lastra and Wilson have been immediate contributors as they all have a score of at least 9.825 on an event this year.

PROJECTED SACRAMENTO STATE LINEUP (Subject to change
	Vault	Bars	Beam	Floor
1.	Grace Gilman	Sarah Lutrel	Emma Morgenthaler	Simone Dumas-Guzman
2.	Sarah Fitzgerald	Emma Morgenthaler	Grace Gilman	Kara Houghton
3.	Rose Wilson	Sarah Fitzgerald	Rylin Zimmerman	Athena Jones
4.	Rylin Zimmerman	Jillianne Lastra	Athena Jones	Emma Morgenthaler
5.	Emma Morgenthaler	Bella Lahmidi	Sarah Lutrel	Grace Gilman
6.	Sarah Lutrel	Kara Houghton	Kara Houghton	Sarah Lutrel
ex.	None	Hannah Sitzman	Mallory Barron	None