Oregon State Beavers Gymnastics solidified the conference championship over the previous shared winners, the Utah Utes. 

“We really wanted to go out and do our jobs as athletes,” said Senior Kristina Peterson on the team’s success.    

The Utah Utes came to Corvallis as the No. 4 ranked team in the country, but seemed to have caved to the pressure as the Beavers stood solid ground at Gill Coliseum with the record breaking 8,859 people in attendance, all while the Utes were going up and down with their scores. 

There was also the added bonus of senior day featuring the four Beavers seniors: Madi Dagen, Kristina Peterson, Jenna Domingo, and Kayla Bird.

“It was crazy seeing people packed from bottom to top of Gill…it really says something about how excited to see gymnastics Beaver nation is,” said Domingo.

“It was an experience of a lifetime…I couldn’t have asked for a better team to end my year with,” said Peterson.  

Winning with a 197.950 over the Utes 197.700, the Beavers broke their losing streak against the Utes, as they have not beat them the past two years. 

Vault was not the favorite nor best of the day as both the Beavers and the Utes scored their lowest overall scores. 

Despite that, Sophomore Jade Carey took first place on vault and Junior Sydney Gonzales shined on vault with Gonzales setting her personal best with a 9.900.  

Scoring a 49.550 overall on Bars, The Beavers paved the way for the rest of the meet for the Beavers – their goal to be doing their best and show what they do in the gym everyday.

They went on to score a 49.550 overall on Beam and Floor as well.  

Freshmen Ellie Weaver (9.925), Francesca Caso (9.900), and Jennifer McMillan (9.950) all set personal records on Bars. 

“Bars was my absolute favorite event today like that was just so awesome to see them (Weaver, Caso, McMillan) go after it and do what we know they can do,” said Dagen on the freshmen’s performance on bars. 

“Our bars lineup was the best we’ve done…we really needed that bars rotation to be big and they came through so I couldn’t be prouder of them,” said Assistant Head Coach Michael Chaplin. 

Beam made everything stick for the Beavers.

Gonzales, Dagen, and Carey put scores on the board to give them the edge they needed to stay on top of the Utes. 

With the Beavers having a minor lead over the Utes, the floor performance from Dagen and Carey came through with their flawless routines and Dagen setting her personal record of a 9.950. 

“It was the best feeling ever…we just talked about coming in here and doing exactly what we know how to do and have been doing in the gym and I think we did exactly that and it fell into place just like we said it would,” said Dagen. 

“We are the dogs,” said Peterson. 

The Beavers are now heading to West Valley City, Utah for the Pac-12 Championships in West Valley City, Utah on Saturday, March 18.