UC Davis’ showing at regionals marked its first appearance in the postseason since 2014, and its first since the format changed in 2019. Though the Aggies fell to Illinois in round one of the Washington Regional, making regionals following a rough start to the season proved that UC Davis is on an upswing.
The season wasn’t a fairytale for Davis; it had some struggles early in the year, and the team took those off meets as an opportunity to regroup and shift perspectives.
“We had to sit down as a team and say, ‘Okay, what do we need to do on the athlete side? And what do the coaches need to do on the coaching side?’,” said senior Megan Ray. The coaches found new ways to help gymnasts work through problem skills, changing assignments to include repetition on skills that had falls. The gymnasts focused on altering mindsets.
“It made it harder to practice, sure, but made competitions so much easier for us,” said Ray.
That ease is clear in the second half of the Aggies’ season. Around mid-February, 194s became 195s. By March, the team put up its first 196, and then did it two more times. While the shifts made during the season clearly had an impact, head coach Tanya Gomez has been working toward these results since she took over the program in…
