The season has ended for Sacramento State’s gymnastics team and is showing great potential for next season. The Hornets saved their best performance of the year for the end with a second place finish at the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Championships. Next season, the Hornets will be missing two familiar faces in seniors Amber Basgall and Marina Borisova, both of whom were a big part of this past season.

“That’s very difficult to lose them obviously. It’s just a transition we know that’s part of sports,” said head coach Kim Hughes. Eryn Stubblefield is one of five juniors on the team and will be the only senior in 2010 who competes in all four events.

“It’s really sad, it’s been so fun to compete with them for four years and they’re a really big asset to our team,” Stubblefield said. “It’s going to be hard to lose them but hopefully we have some good freshmen coming in that can step up and help us out.”

Stubblefield had her best showing of the year at the WAC Championships, placing second in the all-around category with a score of 39.050, her personal best.

Basgall and Borisova have nothing but fond memories of their four years at Sac State. “Just how they’re always there for me and I could always count on them,” Basgall said. “They’ll always be there, I just love them so much.”

Borisova had too many great memories to pick from as she remembered the bond between her teammates, coaches and the entire experience of being a Hornet gymnast.

With her collegiate career now behind her Basgall still has gymnastics in her future plans. “Hopefully, if my body can hold up, maybe I’ll go JO (Junior Olympic), maybe try Olympics, that (would) be great,” Basgall said.

Borisova has her sights on coaching but not anytime soon. “I just wanna stay in shape and heal my body,” Borisova said.

Next season has the potential to have even more success with the amount of returning members and new faces joining the team. “Well we’re losing two very talented people but that’s only seven routines,” Hughes said. “I’ve recruited in some new people. I really feel that one thing we always say is we’re just reloading, we’re not rebuilding, we’re just reloading. So I feel like next year can be as good, if not better than this year.”

Injuries were a constant struggle this year, a likely reason the team did not qualify for the NCAA regionals. In addition to Basgall, Chantal Angyal, Bethany Barrick, Alycia Chan, Amanda Perez, Bailey Sisler and Lissa Zamolo all suffered injuries that kept them out of meets or the entire season. Hughes is confident that the team would be competing for a national title if the team was healthy.

When asked if the constant blows to the team was that detrimental to the team, Hughes said, “Absolutely, we didn’t have Alycia Chan or Amber for the first half of the season and look at the impact they made on the team at the end of the year.”

The wait for next season might seem long, but the team is eager to reach its potential next year. “A healthier team next year, the returnees; I’m looking for a very, very good program next year,” Hughes said.

Mitchell Wilson can be reached at [email protected]