Tkaczuk Earns National Senior Award

UW-Oshkosh's Baylee Tkaczuk has been named the Outstanding Senior of the Year by the National Collegiate Gymnastics Association for the 2020 season.

Tkaczuk is just the second member of the UW-Oshkosh women's gymnastics program to receive the award, joining 2003 winner Jennifer Williams.

Tkaczuk competed on both the balance beam and uneven bars during all nine of UW-Oshkosh's meets this season. She ranked second in the NCGA West Region and fifth nationally on the uneven bars with her average score of 9.6625 and 17th regionally and 27th nationally on the balance beam with her average score of 9.5563.

Tkaczuk recorded season-best scores of 9.70 on the balance beam at the Harley-Davidson Invitational held Feb. 7 and 9.75 on the uneven bars at the Texas Woman's University Quadrangular held Jan. 26.

At the WIAC Championship held March 7 in Eau Claire, Tkaczuk helped UW-Oshkosh to its first league title since 1996 by finishing second on the uneven bars and 18th on the balance beam with her scores of 9.675 and 9.375, respectively. Tkaczuk, the 2017 WIAC balance beam champion, also finished fifth on the balance beam and ninth on the uneven bars at the 2019 conference championship and second on the uneven bars at the 2018 league meet.

Tkaczuk received All-America honors on the uneven bars from the NCGA earlier this week. She was scheduled to compete with her UW-Oshkosh teammates at Saturday's (March 27) NCGA Championship in Ithaca. N.Y., but that meet has been canceled due to the worldwide coronavirus pandemic.

Tkaczuk took first place on the uneven bars at the 2017 and 2018 NCGA Championships. Her winning score of 9.85 on the apparatus in 2018 established a championship record. Tkaczuk also finished fourth nationally on the uneven bars in 2019 and sixth on the balance beam in 2018 to earn All-America honors.

Tkaczuk came to UW-Oshkosh from Minooka High School in Illinois. She owns a 3.60 grade point average as a major in psychology and was named the 2020 WIAC Judy Kruckman Women's Gymnastics Scholar-Athlete of the Year. The three-time WIAC Scholastic Honor Roll member was one of just 125 students from across the UW System that presented their research at the 17th annual Research in the Rotunda event on March 11 in Madison.

Tkaczuk has donated nearly 200 hours of patient care at the Winnebago Mental Health Institute and been a volunteer with Special Olympics and Feeding America.

UW-Oshkosh compiled an 8-1 record against its seven WIAC rivals during the regular season and defeated all of its challengers at the 2020 league championship with its winning score of 189.675. The conference title was the 15th for the Titans.

The last four NCGA Outstanding Senior of the Year honorees were Ithaca College's (N.Y.) Rachel Lee in 2019, UW-La Crosse's Samantha Wiekamp in 2018, UW-Whitewater's Katie Fiorilli in 2017 and SUNY Cortland's Maddie Scozzie in 2016.