Gymnastics: WVU Preps for Saturday's Regional
April 06, 2005 02:53 PM | General
April 6, 2005
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University gymnastics team will make its 27th postseason appearance in the last 28 years when the Mountaineers compete in the NCAA Southeast Regional. The six-team regional meet, one of six being held this weekend, will take place Saturday, April 9, at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center on the campus of the University of Florida in Gainesville, Fla., beginning at 6 p.m.
The Mountaineers (17-7-1) are seeded fifth in the field that includes SEC schools No. 5 Georgia and host team No. 7 Florida, seeded first and second, respectively. The only non-Southeast team selected to the regional is third-seeded No. 17 Denver, a team selected because the top 18 teams in country fill the top three seeds in the NCAA’s six regionals.
East Atlantic Gymnastics League (EAGL) teams fill the remaining three seeds, as league champion and 25th-ranked North Carolina is seeded fourth, followed by West Virginia and North Carolina State. The top two teams at the six regionals will advance to nationals, held April 21-23 at Auburn, Ala.
West Virginia placed fourth last year at the NCAA Southeast Regional held in Raleigh, N.C., with a 195.275 team score. The Mountaineers are coming off a 195.2 score and a second-place finish at the EAGL Championships on March 25.
The Mountaineers have qualified for 22 NCAA regionals in school history and advanced to the NCAA national championships as a team three times, most recently in 2000.
Last year, current sophomore Janáe Cox advanced to nationals in the individual all-around competition after posting a fifth-place score of 39.35 at regionals. This year Cox is ranked fourth in the region in the all-around with a 39.305 regional qualifying score (RQS) and is also ranked fourth in the region on the floor exercise (9.89 RQS) and the balance beam (9.85 RQS).
The Mountaineers, who drew a favorable Olympic rotation order for the meet, will begin on its best event, the vault, and end the meet on another strong event, the floor exercise. The WVU vault team is ranked 18th in the country and the floor team is rated 23rd. As a team, West Virginia is ranked 26th in the nation with a 194.99 RQS.
