The Sacramento State gymnastics team is gearing up to provide people with deja vu in the Western Athletic Conference Championships.

The Hornets came from behind and snagged the top spot in the WAC championships last season and hope to repeat this achievement in their second year at the conference.

The team isn’t feeling any pressure to defend its title, but hope it can bring home the WAC Championship trophy.

“I’m really trying not to think (about repeating) as pressure,” said junior co-captain Nicole Giao. “Just to go in there and do our job.”

All six teams will have a chance at the title, as coach Kim Hughes said it’s anybody’s championship.

“Its going to be a tight meet if everyone hits,” Hughes said.

Throughout the season, the Hornets have had two goals in mind: defend its title and make it to regionals.

“They both carry a lot of weight,” Hughes said.

Sophomore Marina Borisova has been working on a different vault, but Hughes said there won’t be many differences in the routines.

Hughes said the main goal for the WAC Championships is having the injured returnees (Giao, Tiffany Bass and Alexis Tsurmoto) be consistent.

Freshmen Eryn Stubblefield and Lauren Dyson said they know they have big shoes to fill being on a team that won the WAC Championships last season.

“I’m very excited for the opportunity,” Stubblefield said. “We are hoping to keep that record.”

Senior Courtney Hibler is really energized to end her season heading into the championships defending the title.

“I’d like to end my career with another WAC ring,” she said.

Hibler, along with senior Sara Williams and the juniors, knows what it’s like being on the team that won the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation in 2005 and the WAC last year.

“You can’t completely ignore it,” Tsurmoto said. “You don’t think about it, you just go to get the best score.”

The Hornets only have two away meets left, and they need the scores to be high for their Regional Qualifying Score.

“Ultimately, we want a good score to help qualify for regionals,” Giao said. “Yeah, we want to win. It goes hand in hand – getting a good score helps us for regionals.”

The RQS is calculated by taking the top six scores of the season, dropping the highest score, and averaging the next five. Each team can count as many away meets as it likes, but only count three home meets.

Sac State is counting two low scores, which are two of three away meets.

“Two of the three away scores are 191’s (and have a) potential to improve the RQS at away meets,” Hughes said. (We would like to) match our high (score of) 193.7.”

The Hornets are counting their scores from the San Jose, Boise State, Seattle Pacific and both Alaska meets.

The Hornets posted a season-high 194.9, but it wasn’t enough as the San Jose Spartans hit most of their routines and posted a season-high 195.3 last Sunday in the Hornets nest.

Seniors Hibler and Sara Williams performed for their final time in the Nest, and Borisova snagged the all-around title (39.275) for the seventh time this season.

Williams scored a career-high on the bars (9.8), scored 9.775 on vault and 9.55 on beam (exhibition). Hibler posted a 9.575 on beam (exhibition).

Sac State will head to UC Davis on Friday for the first of two final away meets. Sac State, Cal, San Jose State and host UC Davis will be competing in the Friday quad meet.

Karyn Gilbert can be reached at [email protected]