Before the season began, gymnastics coach Kim Hughes knew that the season would come down to a four-inch rail of wood. The balance beam has decided several of the Hornets meets in 2006, none bigger than the Western Athletic Conference Championship on Friday. For the fourth straight season, the conference championship meet ended on the beam, but that did not stop the Hornets.

The team dealt with the pressure of storming into a nationally competitive conference this season. They also dealt with trailing rival San Jose State in the national rankings for most the year, despite beating them twice in three meets. They also stayed focused on that four-inch wide rail of wood, and more important, on winning.

Another team, Boise State, was trailing the Hornets by less than one tenth of a point after three events. The Broncos stood in good position to take the title heading into floor. Things did not go as planned for the Broncos. Several miscues and falls put the title out of reach for the Broncos.

After the competition ended, the Hornets huddled around a set of bleachers near the balance beam waiting for the announcements.”After the meet was over it took a very long time for the scores to be announced,” Hughes, who was named WAC Coach of the Year, said. “The officials did something very strange by handing all the head coaches the final scores before announcing them. I had to keep my poker face on so I wouldn’t give it away.”

The team put together a final score of 193.50 to hold onto first place and win the first WAC conference team title held for gymnastics since 1993.

“(Winning conference) for me was like winning the Olympics,” freshman Marina Borisova said. “After it was announced everyone was crying, we didn’t know what to expect.”

Borisova picked up WAC Freshman of the Year honors after showing the most consistent performance for a freshman throughout the season. She also won the floor event with a score of 9.825, edging over sophomore Tiffany Bass’ score of 9.800.

“I wasn’t very surprised that Marina won Freshman of the Year. She is very strong for our team, especially as a freshman. She definitely deserved it,” senior Carrie Kinghorn said.

Borisova, Bass and senior Brooke Morari each made the first team all-WAC and sophomore Melissa Genovese made the second team.

This was the fifth conference title for the gymnastics program in six years. In 2004, the Hornets took second place to San Jose in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation conference finals. Both Sac State and San Jose moved to the WAC this year.

The Hornets are ranked fifth in the West Region, earning them a spot at the NCAA Regional meet at Stanford to compete for the national crown. The last time Sac State gymnastics went to Regionals as a team was in 1999.

“The difference between the ’99 team and this year’s team is that we started a lot of freshman in ’99. This year’s team has much more experience and depth than that team had,” Hughes said.

Brad Alexander can be reached at [email protected]