MID-AMERICAN CONFERENCE ANNOUNCES 2020 GYMNASTICS ALL-MAC FIRST & SECOND TEAMS
AND ANNUAL POSTSEASON AWARDS
CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Mid-American Conference announced today the 2020 Gymnastics All-MAC First and Second Teams, along with five postseason awards. The All-MAC First and Second Teams were based upon National Qualifying Scores, while the postseason awards were voted upon by the league’s seven head gymnastics coaches.
2020 MAC Gymnastics Postseason Awards:
Gymnast of the Year: Denelle Pedrick, Central Michigan, Senior
Senior Gymnast of the Year: Denelle Pedrick, Central Michigan, Senior
Co-Specialist of the Year: Claudia Goyco, Ball State, Junior
Co-Specialist of the Year: Amelia Mohler, Western Michigan, Senior
Freshman of the Year: Rachel DeCavitch, Kent State, Freshman
Coach of the Year: Penny Jernigan, Western Michigan
2020 Women’s Gymnastics All-MAC First Team:
Denelle Pedrick, Central Michigan, Senior
Morgan Tong, Central Michigan, Sophomore
Claudio Goyco, Ball State, Junior
2020 Women’s Gymnastics All-MAC Second Team
Jovannah East, Bowling Green, Senior
Hannah DeMers, Central Michigan, Freshman
Rachel DeCavitch, Kent State, Freshman
Mia Lord, NIU, Junior
Caitlin Satler, Eastern Michigan, Sophomore
Jada Rondeau, Eastern Michigan, Junior
The All-MAC First Team and All-MAC Second Team are based upon the regular season scores from the National Qualifying Score (NQS). The top NQS score in each event – vault, bars, beam, floor and all-around, including ties – were named All-MAC First Team. The second and third place NQS in each event, including ties, were named to the All-MAC Second Team.
Pedrick earned both MAC Gymnast and Senior Gymnast of the Year and All-MAC First Team honors. She becomes the sixth Central Michigan gymnast to earn the MAC Gymnast of the Year Award and the first to do it twice. She is the fourth multi-winner since the league began naming a Gymnast of the Year in 1997. Pedrick is the ninth Chippewa to earn the MAC Senior Gymnast of the Year Award and the third – after Selina Nickason (1998) and Moraw (2015) – to sweep both the Gymnast of the Year and the Senior Gymnast of the Year in the same season.
A native of Wilcox, Saskatoon, Canada, Pedrick finished the 2020 season ranked 18th nationally and first in the MAC in the all-around with a 39.355 average all-around score. On the season, she posted the highest individual score by a MAC gymnast in the vault, on the balance beam, on the floor exercise, and in the all-around and finished the year with the league’s best average score on floor. This season she posted 19 first-place finishes, 11 seconds and five thirds.
Pedrick earned the Most Valuable Performer Award in tri-meet at Ohio State. Her 39.525 all-around score at Southern Utah on Feb. 7 tied her career best and is among the top-five all-around scores in program history and the 9.950 floor exercise score she posted against Western Michigan on Feb. 28 is a career best and is tied for seventh best in program history. Her career-best 9.925 vault score ties for sixth best in program history. In 2019, she was the MAC vault and all-around champion and she qualified for the NCAA Regional for the third-consecutive year. She is a two-time NCAA Championships qualifier.
Goyco, a native of Buford, Ga., earned Co-Specialist of the Year and All-MAC First Team honors and helped Ball State to one of its best seasons in recent years with her exciting floor routine. She tied for the MAC lead in both NQS and average on the floor. In 10 meets this season, Goyco posted 9.900 or better five times on floor and totaled 9.800 or better in every single routine. Her career-high mark of 9.925 at Northern Illinois on March 1 helped Ball State set the school record for team scoring in a meet, something the team had already done twice earlier in the season. Her season honors come at the end of a season that saw her be named MAC Specialist of the Week four different times.
Mohler also earned Co-Specialist of the Year honors and became the first MAC Specialist of the Year for the Broncos as she took part in 10 meets this season and served as Western Michigan’s anchor on the beam and bars. Within the MAC, she tied for fifth on the bars in NQS with a 9.830 mark and was sixth on the beam with a 9.835 score. She recorded a 9.900 on the beam against Ball State to tie for the fourth-highest score in program history. Of Mohler’s 10 bars and beam performances during the year, seven of each were 9.800 or higher.
DeCavitch eanrned MAC Freshman of the Year and All-MAC Second Team honors. She began her collegiate career on fire, winning two MAC Gymnasts of the Week in the first four weeks of the season. She swept every event and posted a career-high all-around score at the Lindsey Ferris Invitational (39.400) to win the first of her five all-around titles this season. She became the first Kent State gymnast to win every event in a meet since 2017. In addition to winning the all-around five times, DeCavitch won nine individual event titles as a freshman.
DeCavitch was a consistent force in the Flashes’ lineup, competing all-around in all nine meets and connecting on 92 percent (33-for-36) of her routines. The freshman led the Golden Flashes with 349.8 total points on the season and ranked first among freshmen in points per meet (38.87). She posted the second-highest individual all-around score in the MAC (39.400) and had the fourth best NQS in the Conference (39.020).
Jernigan earned MAC Coach of the Year for the first time in her Western Michigan tenure. In her seventh year at Western Michigan, Jernigan is the fifth Bronco coach to receive the award and first since Dave Kuzara in 2011. In all, Western Michigan has received MAC Coach of the Year accolades eight times. In 2020, Jernigan guided a roster of six freshmen and just two seniors to the regular season championship with a 5-1 league mark. Western Michigan finished with two of the six highest scores in program history this season, including a 196.075 against Kent State during the team’s Senior Day meet for the second-highest mark at Western Michigan. The Broncos’ floor group also finished with the highest score in program history with a 49.375 versus Kent State.
Tong was recognized with All-MAC First Team honors and posted an outstanding sophomore season after earning the MAC Freshman of the Year Award in 2019. A native of Markham, Ontario, Canada, she posted three first-place finishes on the balance beam and ranked first in the MAC with a 9.875 average. She added three second-place finished and two third-place finishes and earned the MAC Specialist of the Week Award on Jan. 22 after posting a career-best 9.900 to win the balance beam in a MAC dual-meet victory over Eastern Michigan. Her 9.900 tied her for the highest beam score by a MAC gymnast this season.
East was honored with All-MAC Second Team recognition and is one of the most decorated athletes in Bowling Green gymnastics history. East concluded her collegiate career in 2020 with tremendous performances as her 39.255 NQS all-around score ranked second in the MAC and she also ranked among the top four in the Conference on vault, balance beam and floor exercise. East finished with more than 100 career top three event finishes and was named MAC Gymnast of the Week three times in 2020. Over the course of her career, she earned a MAC weekly award, either MAC Gymnast of the Week or MAC Specialist of the Week, eight times.
DeMers was named All-MAC Second Team as a freshman at Central Michigan. DeMers made a splash in her first collegiate season, posting nine first-place finishes, three each on bars, vault and all-around. She twice scored 9.950 on bars, tying for fourth in program history and tying with teammate Audriana Hammond for the highest score of the season by a MAC gymnast in the event. Her career-best 9.900 on vault tied for the highest score for a MAC gymnast this season, and she averaged a league-best 9.847 for the season. She also finished among the top five in the conference in average all-around and bars scores.
Lord was recognized with All-MAC Second Team honors and ranked second in the MAC and ninth in the South Central Region on balance beam. Lord tied her personal best score of 9.900 twice in 2020, at Eastern Michigan on Feb. 7, and vs. SEMO on Feb. 28. She was named MAC Specialist of the Week for the first time in her career after the Eastern Michigan meet. In addition to the 9.900 on beam, she contributed a career high 9.800 on vault as the Huskies posted the second-highest team score in school history. A native of Fishers, Ind., Lord finished with an NQS of 9.870 and an average of 9.806 on beam and scored a 9.850 or higher on beam in six of her nine meets on the year. She placed third or higher on balance beam in seven of nine meets and ranked 49th nationally on beam. She debuted on vault in her junior season and scored a personal record of 9.800 on vault and averaged a 9.65 on vault for the year.
Satler was named All-MAC Second Team and reached new heights on beam during her second year of collegiate competition as she ranked third in the MAC. A native of Orland Park, Ill., Satler scored a 9.825-or-better five times, including a new personal-best of 9.900 against NIU on Feb. 7. The sophomore specialist was a staple in the Eastern Michigan beam and floor lineups, collecting eight top-three finishes during the 2020 season.
Rondeau was also named All-MAC Second Team and closed out the year third in all-around and fourth on bars in the MAC. A native of Savage, Minn., she hit personal-bests of 9.850 and 9.875 on bars and beam, respectively, and tallied 15 scores of 9.825-or-higher in nine meets this season. She earned five first-place finishes in all-around, and four on bars and totaled 14 podium finishes of third place-or-better, this season.
