Gymnastics: Cox Competing at Nationals
April 19, 2005 01:29 PM | General
By Justin Zackal for MSNsportsNET.com
April 19, 2005
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University sophomore gymnast Janáe Cox will compete in the 2005 National Collegiate Women’s Gymnastics Championships this weekend starting Thursday, April 21, at Auburn’s Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum in Auburn, Ala.
Cox, appearing at the NCAA Championships for a second straight year as an individual in the all-around, will compete in Thursday’s preliminary session II beginning at 7 p.m. As one of 12 individual all-around gymnasts in the field, Cox will rotate with Alabama and follow the Crimson Tide’s draw of a first-rotation bye, followed by the floor exercise, the vault, a fourth-rotation bye, the uneven bars and finish on the balance beam in the sixth rotation.
The nation’s 23rd ranked gymnast in the all-around at the end of the regular season, Cox advanced to nationals with a 39.15 all-around score for fifth place at the NCAA Southeast Regional on April 9 in Gainesville, Fla. Her score at regionals ranks fourth among the 12 gymnasts who qualified for nationals as individuals.
Last year at nationals, held in at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, Cox placed 26th in the preliminary session I with a 38.65. Cox placed as high as 25th last year on individual events with a 9.7 on beam. She also scored a 9.7 on bars and 9.675 on vault and floor. This year, her best event is the floor as she was ranked 25th in the nation at the end of the regular season with a 9.89 regional qualifying score.
The team championships, known as the Super Six, consisting of the top three teams from each of Thursday’s two preliminary sessions, will be held Friday, April 22, at 7 p.m., while the individual event championships will be held Saturday, April 23, at 7 p.m. All gymnasts competing in the two preliminary sessions are eligible to advance to the individual event championships by placing in the top four on one of the four events.
Cox, a native of Otisco, Ind., is the seventh WVU gymnast to qualify for nationals as an individual in the all-around and the 10th individual gymnast overall. The Mountaineers qualified for nationals as a team in 1995, 1999 and 2000.
