Gymnastics: WVU Travels to Tar Heel Invitational
March 02, 2006 06:05 PM | General
March 2, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - The 24th-ranked West Virginia University women’s gymnastics team travels to Chapel Hill, N.C., on Saturday, March 4, at 1 p.m. for the Tar Heel Invitational hosted at North Carolina’s Carmichael Arena.
The meet will be a showdown between the top two teams in the East Atlantic Gymnastics League (EAGL) as just 0.18 points separates first-place West Virginia (9-5) and second-place North Carolina (12-8) in the rankings, which are determined by their respective regional qualifying scores (RQS) of 193.19 and 193.01.
The four-team meet also includes Pittsburgh (9-4) and Pennsylvania (5-2). Pitt is ranked seventh in the league with a 191.425 RQS, while Penn is a non-conference team without the required six scores for an RQS.
The key event will be vault, as UNC is ranked 14th in the nation on the apparatus and WVU is coming off a season-high 49.05 in last week’s home meet. West Virginia is sporting a 19th-ranked uneven bars team that leads the EAGL, while the Tar Heels are the EAGL leader on the balance beam.
Individually, West Virginia junior Janáe Cox and North Carolina senior Courtney Bumpers lead their respective teams as all-arounders. Cox and Bumpers tied for the EAGL all-around title last year with scores of 39.475, and Bumpers is a two-time national champion on the floor exercise.
This marks West Virginia’s first trip to North Carolina since winning the 2001 EAGL Championships with a score of 196.375.
