Although they’ll be in familiar territory, the Beavers will have stiff competition at regionals

The Oregon State gymnastics team is headed to familiar territory for the NCAA West Region on April 8.

The Beavers will be at Stanford for the event and are the No. 3 seed in the region behind No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Stanford. Boise State is fourth and Sacramento State and San Jose State round out the top six.

Oregon State coach Tanya Chaplin was not surprised by the news.

“When you looked at the rankings and the seedings and pairings, that is the true pairings,” she said. “It wasn’t something out of the ordinary, so we were prepared for that when it came out. It wasn’t a shock.”

With the top two finishers advancing to the NCAA Championships in Gill Coliseum on April 20-22, it will be a tough task for the Beavers.

Alabama is a four-time national champion and is ranked fifth nationally. The eighth-ranked Cardinal just won the Pacific-10 Conference meet in Corvallis with a 197.100.

“Looking at all of the regions with where we were ranked, we knew that any region we were sent to was going to be a fierce competition to make into nationals,” Chaplin said.

Stanford seems to be peaking at the right time with all-around Tabitha Yim healthy and back in the lineup.

Senior Chrissy Lamun said familiarity with the Cardinal as well as Boise State and Sacramento State could benefit the Beavers.

“I think it’s almost better that we’re going there because we have seen the competition,” Lamun said. “We’ve seen what they look like, we’ve seen what they can do and having competed with them, we know exactly what we need to do, so I think that will really help us in the gym this week and next week going into regionals.”

The site is good news for the Beavers from a travel standpoint. Instead of spending hours in the air getting to places like Iowa or Louisiana or Georgia, the Bay Area is just a two-hour flight from Portland.

The shorter trip should help OSU stay ready for the competition.

“We’re not having to spend all that energy traveling and packing up and getting there really early,” Lamun said. “I think that will definitely help to make sure we’re rested.”

The Beavers have competed at Stanford before, so they will have a good idea of the feel of the equipment and floor.

“We’re not having to travel across the country and compete in a gym that we’ve never competed in before,” Lamun said. “For the most part, everybody but the freshmen have competed in this gym and it’s another Pac-10 site.”

The Beavers finished third at the Pac-10 meet with a 196.400 and had their high score of the season a week earlier at the Salbasgeon Suites Invitational with a 196.550.

The scores are closer to matching those of the higher ranked programs and show a big improvement over the course of the season.

“It’s a good thing our team is continuing to build right now,” Chaplin said. “They’re getting stronger and they’re competitive with those top teams right now. So we just have to focus in on what we can do and worry about our performances and not really look at the fact that Alabama or Stanford is there.”