Sacramento State women’s gymnastics had a record-breaking meet while taking on UC Davis and San Jose state in front of a jam-packed crowd for San Jose’s senior meet Friday night in Spartan gym.

The Hornets wasted no time as they tallied up a season-high team bar score of 48.8.

“I think starting on bars and having great energy in the gym definitely helped them,” said assistant coach Jamie Donkin

Freshmen Kalliah McCartney earned second place with a personal best of 9.825 and Kayla Wonderly, who competed on bars for only the second time in her college career, received her high score of 9.75.

After the first rotation, all three teams were within .150 of each other, but Sac State held the lead by .075 over the Aggies.

Sac State had struggled on the beam over the past couple of meets, but Donkin had some words of wisdom for the beam squad before they competed.

“I spoke to the girls and said, ‘This is the time. This is when we need to step up and I need you six (competitors) to make it happen.’”

The Hornets had a successful beam rotation where they tied their high bar score of 48.8, which made it their new season high.

“It’s definitely a confidence booster and I think it’s a reflection of how hard they’ve been working,” Donkin said.

Sophomore Kailey Hansen took home second place with a career high beam score of 9.85.

Although Kiley Field hurt San Jose on bars with a fall, senior Thomasina Wallace’s score helped the Spartans to a first place score of 9.9.

The Spartans passed UC Davis for second place after a strong bar rotation, but the Hornets held on to first by just .05 with two events left to go.

Floor has been the Sac State’s highest-scoring event for most of the season, but botched landings on tumbling passes bumped the Hornets down into second place after the third rotation.

The Spartans counted five strong beam scores.  A 9.775 was their lowest mark, which helped them take the lead over Sac State by .325.

The Aggies were stuck in last place for the last half of the meet, but earned their highest beam score of the season with a 48.775.

Sac State ended on vault where McCartney took first with a new personal best of 9.875, and junior Nicole Meiller placed second with a career high vault score of 9.85.

Even after a successful vault rotation, the Hornets could not pass the Spartans in their own gym with a lively crowd of fans.

The entire crowd chanted Wallace’s name as she completed her last home floor routine. She received a perfect score of a 10.0 from one judge, but earned a 9.9 from judge 2, which gave her a final score of 9.95.

Wallace took first on bars, beam and floor, which gave her a gold medal all-around score of 39.550.

McCartney was the runner up with a career high and new Sac State school all-around record of a 49.375.

“I try and stay confident, clean and consistent in practice so I hit all my routines. So I have that same confidence going into WAC because we want the same big score,” McCartney said.   

The Hornets added another point to their Causeway Cup score after a victory over the Aggies with a season high team score of 195.275-194.150, but couldn’t stop Wallace and the Spartans from scoring a 195.850 to take home the gold.

“This is a big deal for us,” Meiller said. “We wanted it so bad, we went out there and got it and it’s an indescribable feeling.”

This was the last regular meet of the season. The team will be heading to Utah March 24 for the Western Athletic Conference championships.

“The expectations are high because we’ve had so much potential all season long and tonight people finally got a glimpse of what they are capable of,” Donkin said.

Jillian Kweller can be reached at [email protected].