Gritty Titans Ready To Stick Landing At NCGA Championship

Members of the 2022 UW-Oshkosh women's gymnastics team have shown they have resilience to get up when they're knocked down.

The Titans hope to parlay that strength into a national title when they compete at Saturday's (March 26) National Collegiate Gymnastics Association Championship in Ithaca, N.Y.

"Two years ago we won our first conference championship since 1996 and then everything got shut down," recalled UW-Oshkosh head coach Lauren Karnitz. "It was absolutely heartbreaking. It was heartbreaking as a coach but also as an alumna. We have now been able to take back what COVID took away – the opportunity to compete in a national championship with a team that absolutely has an opportunity to win."

The Titans captured their second consecutive Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title on March 5 in Whitewater, and Karnitz was named the league's Coach of the Year. 

Four UW-Oshkosh athletes were All-WIAC honorees and have been key contributors this season - Emily Buffington, Emily Gilot, Rahdea Jarvis and Trinity Sawyer.

Buffington, a sophomore from Huntersville, N.C., was named WIAC Gymnast of the Year after winning titles on the uneven bars and vault at the league championship. She is also a starter for the Titans in the floor exercise.

Gilot, a senior from St. Peters, Mo., placed second on the vault at the WIAC Championship. The three-time All-American is also a starter for UW-Oshkosh on the uneven bars.

Jarvis, a senior from Brookfield, finished second on the uneven bars at the conference meet. She also starts for the Titans on the vault and in the floor exercise competition. Jarvis earned All-America accolades on the vault in 2019.

Sawyer, a junior from Alpharetta, Ga., was fourth in the floor exercise and fifth on the uneven bars at the WIAC Championship. She received All-America recognition on the vault in 2020. 

Karnitz said the team's depth – the seventh and eighth spots that don't get to compete are just as talented as the ones that are in the lineup. This pushes the athletes every day to be better and if someone has to sit out due to injury or illness then there is someone else just as talented that can step right in.

"This is the true epitome of a team – everyone working towards a common goal of being the best they can be to have an opportunity to win nationals," she said.

Two-time vault national champion Baylee Tkaczuk was a senior for the Titans in 2020 – the year UW-Oshkosh won its first conference championship in 24 years.

COVID-19 wiped out any shot that year at a storybook ending – an NCGA championship.

"It was absolutely heartbreaking to find out after winning the conference championship that we would be done with our season," Tkaczuk said. "It was truly very hard for me to accept that I was done with my gymnastics career and my team that worked so hard did not get a shot to win nationals. I think one of the worst parts for me was that I didn't know I completed my last routine when I did."

The 2021 championship also was canceled due to the pandemic.

Fast forward to 2022, and Tkaczuk, who earned a degree in psychology from UW-Oshkosh in 2020, is a student nurse as she works on a degree in UW-Oshkosh's accelerated bachelor's to BSN option – and is an assistant coach for the team. Though her gymnastics ending wasn't what she envisioned, she is grateful for an "amazing experience at UW-Oshkosh and the career I had. I am also grateful to have ended my career on a high note even though I didn't know it at the time."

Tkaczuk pulled herself up and is helping this year's team do what her team did not get a chance at in 2020. 

"This team right now is so talented and has worked so hard for this meet," Tkaczuk said. "I am just so happy we finally get to go to New York and show everyone what this team is made of!"

Tkaczuk said one of the "best traits" the team has, is holding each other up as a unit and moving through a meet not worrying about anyone or anything else.

"They are hungry for this national competition, and they have all the tools to come out on top," Tkaczuk said.

Written by Laurie Schlosser, UW-Oshkosh University Marketing & Communications