The Sacramento State gymnastics team won its fourth conference title in the last five years Friday night at the UC Davis Pavilion against last year’s champion San Jose State.

The team was led by senior Nirvana Zaher who defended her vault title and won the conference all around title for the first time.

Zaher was also called to share the title of Mountain Pacific Sports Federation “co-Gymnast of the Year” with San Jose State senior Jennifer Greene.

Before the meet even began, the Hornets were showing some unexpected talent.

Assistant coach Randy Solorio opened the night by serenading the crowd with a rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Head coach Kim Hughes’ team improved its record to 15-8 on the season and finished with a season high team score of 194.550.

The entire team contributed to a dominant performance, with the Hornets taking four of five possible event titles, along with the overall team title.

Perhaps the most consistent member of the Hornets team, freshman Alexis Tsurumoto won the uneven parallel bars event with a score of 9.900.

This also marks a season high and career high for Tsurumoto and the eighth bars title of the year.

The Hornets appeared to be unstoppable when the dust cleared after their first three rotations, but the team still had the beam to confront.

San Jose State was not far behind Sac State, trailing by only 1.675 points. The Spartans were on bars for the last rotation of the night.

Hughes’ Hornets continued to dominate through their toughest event and went six for six performances on the beam without a fall.

They finished the competition with a 2.5-point edge over second place San Jose State.

“After we rocked bars and vault, the beam was no problem,” senior Stephanie Aeder said.Sac State was the only team not to have at least one fall on the beam.

The Hornets began the night with a bye, forced to watch the first round of competition. Aeder led the team through its first event the floor exercise and won it with a score of 9.800.Seattle Pacific’s Debra Huss, last to perform of the night, was the only gymnast standing in Aeder’s path to first, but Huss’ music malfunctioned twice and forced restarts.

The floor judges also made things interesting by awarding points sparingly during the night’s competition.

“I was OK with it as long as they stayed low,” Aeder said.

“I’m just glad the judges stayed consistent throughout the night,” Hughes said. “They were very tight on scoring.”

The win was a sobering experience for Aeder, after noting that the Hornets are sitting on the bubble to make the NCAAs West Regional playoffs.

“It’s so hard because this is possibly our last meet as a team,” Aeder said.

Depending on how other bubble teams like San Jose State filter through the NCAA scoring system this past weekend, Sac State could squeeze into the sixth and final spot for regionals.

Zaher took second place .025 behind Aeder on the floor and shared the vault title with Alaska-Anchorage’s Dominique Ingram. Her score on vault set a new season high at 9.850 for the event.

Zaher won the vault title at the 2004 MPSF championship. This becomes Zaher’s third career vault title.

The Cairo, Egypt, native took control of the competition by winning the all around with a score of 39.025.

Even Zaher’s lowest score of 9.700 on the beam was rewarded by her father blowing her kisses from the stands. Her father and mother flew in from Cairo to watch the competition.The Hornets came into the championship with a .005 deficit in the conference standings to team rival San Jose State.

After winning the MPSF title in 2002 and 2003, the Hornets handed the title over to the San Jose Spartans in 2004.

“I might have been more nervous on this one than last year’s,” Hughes said. “We had to win it back.”

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Brad Alexander can be reached at [email protected]