Oregon State Women’s Gymnastics placed second in the NCAA Corvallis Regional Finals meet on Saturday night at Gill Coliseum, earning a trip to nationals.

In the meet, the No. 15 Beavers were able to score 196.900, defeating Boise State and No. 4 Florida, but fell short to No. 5 Denver who racked up a total of 197.375 points to take first. 

According to OSU Head Coach Tanya Chaplin, this was only the second time that her team landed all 24 of their routines.

“I am so proud of this team and our staff, they’ve worked so hard this year,” Chaplin said. “I thought they showed a lot of strength, courage, just grit. This was the second day of competition, and they just honed in on what they needed to do and it came out that we are heading to Fort Worth. That’s just incredibly exciting for us.”

Early in the meet, the top-seeded Florida Gators counted a fall on the balance beam, giving the Beavers an opportunity to gain the lead for second place. 

Despite already having the home-court advantage, Oregon State also received their regular event rotation, giving them the ability to end the meet on the floor. 

After the final transition, Oregon State trailed to Denver by 0.225 points and needed a strong performance on the floor. OSU junior Isis Lowery and sophomore Kaitlyn Yanish both came up big in their routines, earning 9.900’s to knock Florida out of the tournament.

According to Yanish, who was recently named Pac-12 First Team All-Conference, the energy from the crowd helped build the excitement at the end of the meet.

“Honestly, it felt so exciting in there. I feel like we went out and did what we know how to do, and what we do everyday in practice,” Yanish said. “It was so loud in there, I feel like I could barely even hear. It just felt like we were champions right from there. I had no idea that we were going but I just knew that everybody was super excited and I was super excited so it was just a lot of fun.”

Three Beavers, including Sabrina Gill, Mariana Colussi-Palaez and Lowery scored 9.900 on the uneven bars. Gill also led the team on the balance beam with a 9.900.

“She (Lowery) really builds up the crowd, and it almost makes it easier for me because the crowd is already super pumped,” Yanish said.

Lowery, who competed in the bars, beam and floor, scored the highest total amount of points for the Beavers with 29.625. Senior Mckenna Singley followed closely with a combined 29.475 points in the vault, beam and floor.

“It was amazing, it makes the energy for us even greater and it makes it more exciting and more fun,” Singley said. “Especially because Beaver Nation is one family and having that that energy, having them cheer us on like that it just gets you excited, it makes you feel so loved.”

The Beavers are one of three Pac-12 teams in the NCAA National Championships, including UCLA and Utah. Oklahoma, Georgia, Michigan State, Denver and LSU are also in the meet.

Oregon State Gymnastics will be performing in the semifinals of the championship meet at Fort Worth, Texas on Friday, April 19. The time of the matchup is to be disclosed.