Freshman McKenna Singley scores career high on floor in OSU’s victory

On the last routine of Monday night’s meet, Oregon State gymnastics sealed their victory over twelfth ranked Stanford.

Minutes before OSU’s final session on floor, junior Kaytianna McMillan was withdrawn from the event because of soreness in her knee, replacing her was freshman McKenna Singley.

Singley’s career best was achieved last week when she scored a 9.75. She had no idea how her score could affect the outcome of the meet. Monday night, Singley needed to improve her best score by nearly a tenth of a point.

Singley scored a 9.90 on her floor routine.

“I had no idea. My team had done their job, everything that they needed to and I knew I could do it too. I just needed to go out and have fun and I knew they had my back, with whatever I did,” Singley said.

Though Singley wasn’t aware of of her score’s ramifications, her teammates knew exactly what was on the line.

“We saw as soon as stanford finished their routines, that the scores were tied. I had full faith in Kenna and I had watched her do a beautiful floor routine the day before. So it was really just putting all our energy into her and just having that belief in her. It was exciting seeing her get a career best and it was exciting to see as a freshman for her to do something that big, I’m really proud of her,” junior Taylor Ricci said.

Junior Madeline Gardiner was impressed by the routine.

“Every pass was better than the last, oh my God that was one of the best routines we’ve ever seen Kenna do,” Gardiner said.

Tonight was extra special for Singley, her mother made the trip over from Utah to watch her daugher perform.

“Its amazing. My mom has been my biggest supporter throughout my gymnastics career, so to be able to do that in front of her, I know she was be really proud. To make her realize what all she has done, made it even better,” Singley said.

Singley wasn’t the only Beaver to earn a career best, freshman Mary Jacobsen and Ricci also set personal records.

The team’s improvement shouldn’t come as a surprise. Throughout the week, coaches were emphasising the teams ‘.025’. Meaning, what are the little things the team could do to increase their scores by .025 points.

“At practice we really tried to hold each other accountable for it. A lot of the time we would be standing there in a huddle before our routines and say “what’s your .025?” Gardiner said.

Monday night’s win over Stanford marks the second week in a row that the Beavers have knocked off a higher ranked opponent.

“It feels amazing. I like showing that we can do it and we are worth it and that we have the talent for it. To us it’s more about looking at the scores and how they will change our RQS. I think the score we got tonight will really help us,” Gardiner said.

Confidence is a big deal to a gymnastics team, and the Beavers are glad to have it going into the latter portion of the season.

“Our team is really building off each performance this year, especially in the second half of the season. We didn’t necessarily start the way we wanted to, so to do what we did two weeks in a row is really huge. I’m really excited for the next couple of meets, heading into Pac-12’s to keep boosting our rankings, because this team has so much more potential,” Ricci said.

@Max_Braly