Senior Sara Williams said when she was 7 years old, she wanted more than anything to compete on a four-year college gymnastics team. She wasn’t yet use to competing in two rotations or hearing her name called at the end of a Sacramento State meet. After three years, the 5-foot-3-inch gymnast emerged to finish her gymnastics career on a high note.

Williams trained at Kips Gymnastics in Corona for eight years before joining the Hornets in the fall of 2003 as a walk-on.

As a freshman, she only competed in one meet receiving a 9.296 on bars and 9.65 on beam in exhibitions against Alaska Anchorage.

She was able to show off a little more during her sophomore year as she competed nine times, including three exhibitions. Williams averaged a 9.296 through her six routines on bars that counted and recorded her top score of 9.725 against Seattle Pacific on Jan. 14, 2005.

Just as Williams was climbing up the gymnastics ladder, she dislocated her toe and was only used as an exhibitionist on bars against UC Davis on March 12, 2006.

Coming into her senior year, Williams knew she had a spot in the bars rotation, but needed to show the coaches she could keep up with the rest of the team on the vault.

“I always knew I was good enough,” she said.

The Sac State team dealt with some injuries that forced No. 1 bars competitor, Alexis Tsurumoto, out of the lineup, but Williams said she did earn her spot after Tsurumoto fractured her finger.

“It was heartbreaking,” Williams said. “We needed her.”

Williams knows she can do bars but said she still gets a little nervous when vaulting.

“I’ve been doing bars for so long, I know I’ve got it,” she said. “(Vault is still) a little new to me.”

When Williams joined Hornet gymnastics, assistant coach Randy Solorio said she came with a tuck front on the vault, and at the start of her senior season she finally perfected it.

He placed her on vault for exhibition during the first meet of the season on Jan. 7 in a tri-meet against Utah State and Wisc.-La Crosse, where the Hornets took first place with 191.375 points in the Hornets Nest. They added a pike landing, which raised the start value of the vault to a 9.9 out of 10.

“She wears everything on her sleeve,” Solorio said. “You never have to guess with Sara, and that’s part of her success.”

Solorio said Williams has brought up her ability to perform in the gym and her academics.

Williams said if it wasn’t for gymnastics, she wouldn’t be in college earning a degree.

Solorio said her drive to compete helped her focus on her school work.

“Because of gymnastics she’s getting her degree,” he said.

He said it was a factor that if she didn’t do well in her academics, she wouldn’t be able to do gymnastics and that she wasn’t ready to lose the sport she loves.

“It’s exciting to see an athlete come in and work hard and succeed in sports and school,” Solorio said.

Both Solorio and Williams said things haven’t always come easy to the senior, but she always had the attitude to work hard and succeed.

Coach Kim Hughes said Williams has been a total turn-around in how she prepares for competition and has increased her difficulty on the bars. He said she ranks in the middle and is a solid scorer on both the bars and the vault.

“It’s just what you always hope for in a walk-on,” Hughes said. “She has surpassed our expectations.”

Her teammates have also noticed the changes she’s gone through to get where she is today.

“She’s always been good on bars,” senior Courtney Hibler said. “She’s got her act together and has been working really hard ? She’s pulled it together and has done a really good job.”

Junior bar specialist Tsurumoto said that Williams’ senior year has been awesome and that she has improved.

“It’s great she is going to end the year like that,” she said.

Her coaches and teammates aren’t the only ones to see Williams’ improvement. Her roommate, and former Sac State gymnast Brook Morari, said Williams is having the best year ever.

Her parents, Clay and Joleen, are overjoyed with their daughter’s final year at Sac State.

“We are so glad she is finishing on a high note,” Clay said.

“It’s the best way to end her senior year,” Joleen said.

Both Clay and Joleen, along with older sister, Angela, were in attendance during William’s final home meet on March 18 in the Hornets Nest.

She posted a career-high 9.775 on vault, 9.8 on bars and 9.575 exhibition on beam during the senior meet.

Team wins second consecutive conference title in only second year in WAC

The Sacramento State gymnastics team entered the Western Athletic Conference Championships last Saturday in Cedar City, Utah, as the defending champions.

The Hornets were facing six teams, three of whom had beaten them during the season, minus the team depth they had enjoyed last year.

“This year we didn’t have as much team depth as last year,” coach Kim Hughes said.

The athletes aced all 24 routines and scored a season-high 195.275 to earn the title of WAC Champs in back-to-back years.

Sac State’s last perfect meet was two years ago when the Hornets took the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation title in 2005.

Hughes said every other team had a fall during the meet.Not only did they bring home the WAC title to Sacramento again, but they broke the school and conference record on beam with a score of 49.325.

“We knew we had to hit everything,” junior Tiffany Bass said. “After hearing (we broke the school and conference record) it was so amazing.”

“To me it’s a tremendous achievement,” Hughes said. “They have been in a lot of stress and are tired. They have worked hard and are excited about their achievement.”

Junior co-captain Melissa Genovese topped the beam and was named beam champion with a 9.9.

Sophomore Marina Borisova took second with a 9.875 and Bass, freshmen Lissa Zamolo and Eryn Stubblefield tied for third with a 9.850 to lock in the success on the beam for Sac State.

Borisova finished second in the all-around (39.275) and tied for first on floor (9.850).

Both Hughes and Genovese said that the victory was a team effort.

“I’m so proud of every member of the team. It took a complete team effort,” Genovese said.

Six members were honored after the meet.

Borisova was named to the first-team all-WAC in the all-around, beam and floor and named to the second team for vault. Genovese was named to the first team on beam and second for floor. Junior Alexis Tsurumoto was named to second team for bars.

Bass, Zamolo and Stubblefield were all named to first team on the beam to round out the honors for Sac State.

The Hornets began this season a little short-handed as they were plagued with multiple injuries.

The freshmen were asked to step up early-on and Hughes said they stepped up again in the WAC Championships.

Not as many frosh competed in the Championships since the return of the inured upperclassmen, but Amanda Bieber, Lauren Dyson, Stubblefield, and Zamolo went to Cedar City and didn’t disappoint.

“The biggest thing in this meet was the freshmen that competed did step up and did want we wanted them to do,” Hughes said.

The Hornets flew back Sunday with their WAC trophy from their second consecutive title in only the second season in the conference.

With the victory in the WAC Championships, the Hornets are now ranked fifth and will be traveling to Haas Pavilion at the UC Berkeley on April 14 for their second appearance in the NCAA West Regionals, thus making school history. The gymnastics program hasn’t made back-to-back appearances in the regionals, until this season.

“Randy (Solorio) said unofficially we are 35th in the nation,” Hughes said Saturday. “And doing that on the road (was great).”

Hughes said Solorio looked on an unofficial website after the WAC Championships to see where the Hornets were ranked, but said he thinks that 35th is where they should be. The official ranking will be released on troester.com, which is the site that ranks both the men’s and women’s gymnastics.

Borisova and Genovese are the first to compete in all-around in every meet this season.

Former hornets, Binta Coleman and Toni Peterson, from the 1996 season, were close, but each missed one meet.

Borisova began her all-around streak halfway through last season, appearing in 19 consecutive meets. Genovese, who had never competed for Sac State as an all-rounder, began at the start of the season and never missed a meet. Karyn Gilbert can be reached at [email protected]