Gymnastics: Morris Set for NCAA Championship
April 15, 2009 02:58 PM | General
April 15, 2009
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NCAA Championship Notes
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| Mehgan Morris |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia senior Mehgan Morris will compete as an all-arounder at the 2009 National Collegiate Athletic Association Gymnastics Championship on Thursday, April 16, at 2 p.m. EST, at the Bob Devaney Sports Center in Lincoln, Neb.
The Belle, W.Va., native will compete alongside No. 5-ranked LSU in the day’s first session of competition. Morris and the Tigers’ rotation order will be as follows: beam, bye, floor, vault, bye and bars.
The championship consists of 12 teams, 12 all-around competitors (not on qualifying teams) and individual event specialists.
Morris advanced to her first national championship by virtue of her fifth-place finish (39.125 points) at the NCAA Southeast Regional on April 4 in Raleigh, N.C. Nebraska’s Kylie Stone finished fourth (39.20 points) and also qualified for the national championship. No. 1-ranked Georgia and No. 12 Penn State were the two qualifying teams out of the Southeast Region.
“I’m very excited for Mehgan to have this opportunity to compete with the nation’s best gymnasts,” Coach Linda Burdette says. “The coaching staff’s biggest goal for Mehgan will be to keep her performing at the consistent level she has been at all season.
“Mehgan has gotten better each year she has been at WVU, but she has been her strongest and most consistent this year. One of our program’s philosophies is that we want our seniors to be our strongest athletes – she is certainly doing that, and you couldn’t ask for a better leader.”
“I’m so excited to go and compete,” Morris says. “This is such a huge event that I have always dreamed about. I want to hit four-for-four this week and do the best I can. I can’t think of a better way of ending my Mountaineer career.”
The WVU co-captain is the 16th Mountaineer to individually qualify for the national championship, and the first to do so since All-American Janáe Cox competed as an all-arounder in 2007. Morris currently resides at No. 13 on the WVU career points list with 1,584.925 points, and needs 20.175 points to move past Karla Hairston (1993-96) and into 12th place.
Morris is riding a seven-meet streak of 39.0-plus scores. In the last five meets, she has set or matched career-highs on each apparatus - vault (9.85), bars (9.95), beam (9.850), floor (9.95) and all-around (39.50).
Morris’ past month has been full of success at championships. In addition to her qualifying all-around finish, she also tied for second (9.90) on the floor and 11th (9.80) on the bars at the Southeast Regional. Prior to the regional, Morris finished first in the all-around (39.30), and on the bars (9.85) and the floor (9.85) at the East Atlantic Gymnastics League (EAGL) Championship. For her efforts all season, Morris was named the 2009 EAGL Outstanding Senior Gymnast.
Preliminary team and all-around competition will be conducted in two sessions Thursday, April 16, at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. EST. The top three teams from each session will advance to the Super Six competition on Friday, April 17, at 7 p.m. EST. The top four individuals from each session in each event (plus ties) from the preliminary team and all-around competition will compete in the individual-event competition Saturday, April 18, at 7 p.m. EST.
