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Women's Gymnastics
No. 20 Illini Earn Fourth Straight NCAA Regional Bid
April 2, 2007 Arizona's South Central Regional Website 2007 South Central Regional Rotation Draw (PDF)
Regional selections for the 2007 National Collegiate Women's Gymnastics Championships were announced on Monday by the NCAA, and Bob Starkell's 20th-ranked Fighting Illini squad earned the fourth seed in the South Central Regional, which will take place in Tucson, Ariz., on Saturday, April 14. The regional invite is the fourth in a row under Starkell, who is in his eighth season with the Illini. Illinois will begin the meet on the balance beam, the same event it started on at last week's Big Ten Championship. Starkell was happy with the draw and the fact that the team is rotating in the same order as Big Tens, where it finished third and produced an event champion in senior Cara Pomeroy. "I'm excited about our rotation because they're familiar with it from Big Tens, where we did well," said Starkell. "Plus we'll be competing against four Pac-10 schools who we haven't seen this season. I think it will be a good challenge for us as we look to build off the momentum from the weekend." This is Illinois' 20th trip to the NCAA Regional Championships. The Illini's best finish at a regional meet is fourth on several occasions, most recently in 2006. The Illini have never qualified for the national championships as a team. Six teams, plus up to five all-around competitors (who are not on a qualifying team) and one individual event specialist per event were named to each of the six regions. The top two teams and the top two all-around competitors (who are not on an advancing team) from each regional will receive an automatic berth to the national championships hosted by University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, April 26-28. In addition, the event winners at the regional championships will advance to the national championships (in that event only) if they are not part of a qualifying team or the all-around qualifiers. Joining the Illini in Tucson will No. 4 Stanford, No. 8 Oregon State, No. 15 Arizona, No. 26 Arizona State and No. 36 Illinois-Chicago. Illinois is currently ranked 20th in the nation with a Regional Qualifying Score (RQS) of 195.235. Also joining the teams in the South Central Regional are five all-around gymnasts and one specialist for each event. The all-around gymnasts qualifying in the South Central region are Rikara Turner (Southeast Missouri State), Leah Johnson (Northern Illinois), Sandra Blake (Southeast Missouri State), Bryanna Wong (Southeast Missouri State) and Whitney Albright (Illinois State). Event specialists include Meaghan Koshman (Illinois State) on vault, Courtney Arno (Texas Woman's University) on uneven bars, Jena Nguyen (Southeast Missouri State) on beam and Natalie Blum (Northern Illinois) on floor exercise. Each of the six regionals is made up of three teams ranked among the top-18 in the nation, based on RQS. The top 18 teams were seeded and assigned to the six regional sites (three per site), while the remaining three team slots at each regional site were filled by the next three highest-ranking teams within that respective region. The top all-around gymnast and the top event specialist in each event - not on a qualifying team - were then invited to their respective regional championships. Complete regional assignments can be found at www.ncaasports.com/gymnastics/womens. At last year's South Central Regional in Fayetteville, Ark., the Illini finished fourth with a score of 193.125, equaling the best finish at a regional meet in school history. No. 3 Florida (196.375) took the regional title, while the host, No. 18 Arkansas, (195.400) edged No. 9 UCLA (195.175) for the second team qualifying spot to the NCAA Championships. Illinois was fourth behind the Bruins, and was followed by Illinois-Chicago (191.125) and Southeast Missouri State (189.050). 2007 NCAA South Central Regional Qualifying Teams (RQS)
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