Gymnasts in Seattle to face Northwest rival Washington

Oregon State gymnastics travels to Seattle Friday for its third consecutive conference meet, taking on No. 21 University of Washington, a matchup with more implications than meets the eye.

With the University of Oregon and Washington State University both not having gymnastics programs, the Huskies have slid into that natural rivalry slot for the No. 8 Beavers.

"There's always that rivalry there, that Northwest rivalry," said head coach Tanya Chaplin.

"I want to beat everybody," said associate head coach Michael Chaplin. "But yeah, certainly there's a rivalry there and they're our closest Pac-12 opponent. And we've had a good record over the years and want to continue that. I think last time we were there, we did lose, so I clearly remember that."

True, last time OSU faced the Huskies in Seattle in 2009, they came away third in a four-team meet, and placed behind Washington. The only gymnasts on the current team that were a part of that defeat were seniors Leslie Mak, Olivia Vivian and Stephanie McGregor, the latter of whom is out for the year with an injury.

"I think there's added incentive for us that went there last time to really just make sure that doesn't happen again," Vivian said.

Oregon State isn't exactly catching Washington at an ideal time, either. Last week, in their first home meet, the Huskies knocked off then-No. 1 UCLA. Although a lot of the victory had to do with UCLA's struggles, Washington still beat the nationally top-ranked squad.

"Washington did an awesome job of capitalizing on the opportunity," Tanya Chaplin said. "UCLA opened the door and Washington walked through."

"UW has been getting better every year, and they're someone to be reckoned with this year," said junior Kelsi Blalock. "Obviously since they knocked No. 1 off … they would love to do the same to us, I'm sure."

The Beavers may be returning an important member of the team from injury this week. Freshman Chelsea Tang, who was impressive in her first two collegiate meets, sprained her elbow in practice after the meet in Arizona. Tang is one of four all-arounders (competing in all four events: vault, bars, beam, floor) on the team thus far, and will be questionable for Friday's meet.

There's a chance Tang will be back "at least on a few events," according to Tanya Chaplin. "We'll try to bring her back slowly on things."

The discrepancy between home and road performances has been noticeable so far for OSU, even though the sample size of just three meets is small. In home meets with Oklahoma University and Stanford University, the Beavers scored an average of 196.663.

In their only road meet at the University of Arizona, they scored 194.825. In gymnastics, that is a lot bigger difference than it appears.

"I know that we're going to go in with full confidence after last week," Vivian said. "I feel like Arizona was just a fluke, just a freak accident."

Last week's win over Stanford was OSU's best performance of the season. The hope for the team is to prove they can score just as high while away from Gill Coliseum.

"Now we need to put the same performance together on the road, and we know that," Tanya Chaplin said.

Warner Strausbaugh, sports writer

Twitter: @WStrausbaugh

sports@dailybarometer.com