Gymnastics: WVU Hosts Three Teams Sunday
March 04, 2005 03:58 PM | General
March 4, 2005
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University gymnastics team will host the first of two meets in three days when the Mountaineers compete in a quad meet at the WVU Coliseum on Sunday, March 6, at 1 p.m. Nationally-ranked Auburn and Michigan State will compete as well as Kent State.
The Mountaineers (6-4), averaging a 194.467 team score in their three home meets this season, will look to use a higher home-meet score to improve their 193.635 team regional qualifying score (RQS), which is used in national rankings.
Auburn (2-9) ranked No. 20 with a 194.33 RQS is the highest ranked team competing followed by No. 23 Michigan State (15-5) with a 194.09 RQS. Kent State (7-2), meanwhile, has the same RQS as West Virginia with a 193.635, good enough for the 29th-best score in the country.
West Virginia is coming off a spirited come-from-behind win last Saturday at Rutgers as the Mountaineers trailed the host Scarlet Knights by a gaping 1.075 margin through two rotations and came back for a 193.15-192.525 win. The teams also registered wins over Bridgeport (185.724) at the three-team meet.
During last week’s meet, WVU compiled a season-high 48.95 on the floor exercise and its vault team, ranked 15th in the nation this week with a 48.865 RQS, scored a 48.975. The team won despite sophomore all-arounder Janáe Cox, the team leader in season averages on bars (9.729), floor (9.767) and the all-around (38.808), suffering a mild concussion and missing her first career meet for precautionary measures. Cox returns to the lineup on Sunday.
Leading the Mountaineers are seniors Kari Williams and Jessica Bartgis. Williams is ranked 16th in the country on vault with a 9.88 RQS, while Bartgis is ranked 35th in the country with a team-high 38.845 RQS in the all-around, which ranks second in the East Atlantic Gymnastics League.
The meet marks the second in three days for Michigan State after the Spartans compete at Kentucky with Central Michigan on Friday night. Auburn enters the meet after a fourth-place finish and losing at the new No. 1-ranked team Nebraska last Sunday with a 194.05 team score. Kent State competes against WVU for the second of three times this year after the Golden Flashes upset the Mountaineers at home on Jan. 16, 190.875-190.525.
After Sunday’s meet, West Virginia hosts its final home meet of the season when Pitt comes to the Coliseum on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
