Gymnastics: WVU Visits First-Place N.C. State
March 17, 2005 10:38 AM | General
March 17, 2005
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The first of two meets in eight days at the Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, N.C., for the West Virginia University gymnastics team takes place Friday, March 18, at 7 p.m. when the Mountaineers visit North Carolina State.
The meet is the regular-season finale for both teams before N.C. State hosts the East Atlantic Gymnastics League (EAGL) Championships on Friday, March 25. The Mountaineers are defending EAGL champions, while the Wolfpack lead the league this year with a 194.545 regional qualifying score (RQS). WVU is third in the league with a 194.38 RQS behind second-place North Carolina with a 194.41.
The top three EAGL teams, N.C. State, UNC and WVU, are ranked 28th, 29th, and 30th in the NCAA, respectively. The Wolfpack peaked at No. 23 entering last week while the Mountaineers were ranked as high as No. 24 during the regular season and 23rd in the preseason coaches’ poll.
West Virginia (12-5), coming off three wins at Eastern Michigan last Saturday with a 194.85 team score, owns the nation’s 14th-ranked vault team with a 48.975 RQS that leads the conference. N.C. State (12-4-1), meanwhile, has the best uneven bars (48.53) and balance beam (48.83) RQS’s in the league, the latter ranking 16th in the NCAA.
N.C. State is coming off a three-meet road trip going 2-1 with a win and a season-high 195.5 team score at North Carolina on Feb. 27, losing at No. 8 Georgia (196.95-194.95), and defeating California at Berkeley last Friday, 194-05-192.3.
The top individual gymnasts at the meet will be West Virginia’s Kari Williams and Janáe Cox. Williams, a senior from Newark, Del., has the 19th-best vault RQS in the country at 9.885, while Cox, a sophomore from Otisco, Ind., is ranked 22nd in the nation with a 9.885 RQS on the floor exercise. Cox also ranks 36th in the NCAA in the all-around (39.08).
Junior all-arounder Kylah Bachman is the highest scoring N.C. State gymnast with a 48th-ranked 38.88 all-around RQS and a 29th-ranked balance beam RQS of 9.845.
