Titans Have Six All-America Performances At NCGA Championship
Freshman Emily Gilot earned a pair of All-America awards to lead UW-Oshkosh at the National Collegiate Gymnastics Association (NCGA) Championship held Saturday (March 23) in Kolf Sports Center.
Gilot finished sixth in the floor exercise with a season-best score of 9.725 and eighth on the vault with a figure of 9.65. Gilot also placed 16th on the uneven bars with a score of 9.425. The floor exercise featured 49 participants, the vault 48 and the uneven bars 45.
The Titans had four other All-America performances at the championship – junior Jessica Bernardo in the all-around competition, freshman Kaira Hammond and junior Baylee Tkaczuk on the uneven bars and freshman Rahdea Jarvis on the vault.
Bernardo placed third among 10 all-around competitors with 37.525 points. She also finished 24th in the floor exercise with a score of 9.525, 26th on the balance beam with a mark of 9.325 and 27th on both the vault and uneven bars with grades of 9.475 and 9.200, respectively. Bernardo, who finished second in the all-around competition at the 2017 NCGA Championship, recorded a season best with her score on the vault.
Hammond finished fifth on the uneven bars with her score of 9.60. She also contributed a 15th-place score of 9.55 on the balance beam.
Tkaczuk ranked fourth on the uneven bars with a score of 9.625 and 18th on the balance beam with a count of 9.525. Tkaczuk was the two-time defending uneven bars champion.
The Titans had three other top-30 finishers on both the vault and in the floor exercise.
On the vault, Rahdea Jarvis placed eighth with a score of 9.60 while Haley Minor listed 11th with a result of 9.60 and Amira Ali 27th at 9.475. All three scores for the UW-Oshkosh gymnasts were season bests.
In the floor exercise, Olivia Keller finished ninth with a score of 9.70. UW-Oshkosh also had Jarvis place 18th with a mark of 9.60 and Bailey Finin 21st with a figure of 9.55.
Winning event titles were Shadae Boone of UW-Stout on the vault with a score of 9.825, Courtney Christoforo of Ithaca College (N.Y.) on the uneven bars with a tally of 9.675, Franchesca Hutton of UW-Whitewater on the balance beam with a count of 9.775 and Emma Schulz of State University of New York at Cortland in the floor exercise with a grade of 9.625. The College at Brockport's Candis Kowalik won the all-around title with a score of 38.400.
UW-Oshkosh, which was participating in the team competition at the NCGA Championship for the first time since 2014, placed fourth in this year's standings with 189.400 points.
The Titans accumulated 48.10 points in the floor exercise, 47.850 on the vault, 46.80 on the uneven bars and 46.65 on the balance beam. UW-Oshkosh's score on the vault was a school record.
The College at Brockport scored 191.050 points to win its second NCGA title. The Golden Eagles also captured the team title in 2012.
Completing the team listings were second-place UW-Stout with 190.275 points, third-place and two-time defending champion UW-Whitewater with 190.150, fifth-place Ithaca College with 187.975 and sixth-place State University of New York at Cortland with 185.500.
A total of 1,484 fans attended this year's NCGA Championship. UW-Oshkosh was hosting the championship for the first time in the 36-year history of the meet.
The NCGA recognized the top eight finishers in each event as All-Americans and named UW-Oshkosh's Lauren Karnitz and Ithaca College's Rachel Lee as its 2019 Coach of the Year and 2019 Senior Athlete of the Year, respectively.
2019 NCGA Championship Program