With only one meet left before conference championships, Sacramento State women’s gymnastics won with a score of 194.400 at the senior meet against Central Michigan, Seattle Pacific and long-time rival UC Davis Sunday in The Nest.

The Hornets started the meet off successfully by setting a new school record on vault with a score of 49.075.

“I told them ‘new school record’ and they just exploded in excitement,” said assistant head coach Randy Solorio. “Those were the best vaults we’ve done, but I think we can do better.”

Sac State counted three career-high scores from Kaila Kilwein and Kailey Hansen, who put up a score of 9.85. Nicole Meiller anchored the vault lineup with a 9.825.

Central Michigan looked strong in floor warm-ups, but had a fall and mistake from the first two competitors.

Seattle Pacific had three falls on beam – one each from Brittany Malone, Samantha Taylor and Stephanie Wagner – but only two were counted toward the Falcons’ final score.

The Aggies had a solid bar rotation and accumulated a 48.325, just .025 away from their season high score.

Central Michigan totaled a contending vault score of 48.825 with a career high score of a 9.85 by Kristin Teubner, but was not enough to knock the Hornets out of first place after two rotations.

Freshman Kayla Wonderly earned her personal best bar score of a 9.700, which gave the Hornets a score of 48.500, just .075 away from their season high bar score.

The Chippewas swept the podium on bars and moved up to first place after the third rotation.

The Hornets committed one fall on beam, which knocked them out of first place and put them behind Central Michigan and just .100 in front of UC Davis.

“We’ve been having trouble on beam so the beam team still needs to overcome the issues of what’s making us miss routines,” said head coach Kim Hughes.

Kalliah McCartney took first on beam with a score of 9.75 and first on floor and tying her career high floor score of a 9.9.

Dallas Smith also earned her personal best floor score of 9.775, which helped the Hornets move into first place by the end of the meet.  

“I think we did really well tonight and if we keep going then we’re going to get to where we want to be and make it to regionals,” said senior Emiko Ono.

Senior Stephanie Toubman competed as an exhibitioner on vault and floor, receiving a 9.575 on vault, but hurt her ankle during her last tumbling pass on floor.

The Aggies went 24-for-24, hitting every single routine they competed.

Katie Yamamura set her new career high and UC Davis’ all-around record of 49.225.

Sac State pulled off the win by .375 over the Aggies, who scored a 194.025. Central Michigan came in third with a score of 192.75 and Seattle Pacific took fourth with 191.65.  

“I felt our team chemistry was great and we really worked together as a team from start to finish,” senior Mary Peck said.

The Hornets will head to San Jose State on Friday to take on the Spartans and UC Davis. It will be the last meet of the regular season before the Western Athletic Conference championships.

“We’re motivated and we’re going to use San Jose as a practice,” said assistant coach Jamie Donkin. “The girls are looking forward to going into WAC set on doing the best they possibly can.”  

Last year Sac State came in fourth at the conference championships, but the team is motivated to get the win this year.

“If we hit (our routines), I actually think we have an opportunity to win WAC,” Solorio said. “We are a team to be reckoned with.”

Jillian Kweller can be reached at [email protected].