On Monday, the NCAA announced the teams and individual gymnasts selected to compete at the 2015 National Collegiate Women’s Gymnastics Championships. The championships will be held at the Fort Worth Convention Center Arena April 17-19.
The Nebraska women’s gymnastics team, thanks to their second place finish at the Ames regional meet last weekend, were selected as one of the twelve teams to compete for national honors.
So last weekend was fun... but qualifying to NCAA's is even better! Check out these highlights from Saturday: http://t.co/wrkSswczV9
— Nebraska Women's Gym (@HuskerWGym) April 6, 2015
The twelve teams selected along with their team scores from regional competition are as follows:
Oklahoma – 197.625
Alabama – 197.575
UCLA – 197.500
Florida – 197.475
LSU – 197.175
Georgia – 197.025
Michigan – 197.000
Stanford – 197.000
Nebraska– 196.950
Auburn – 196.900
Oregon St – 196.750
Utah – 196.575
In addition, there are a number of individual gymnasts from non-qualifying teams that were also selected to compete. These teams and individual gymnasts represent the top gymnastics talent across the country.
During their regular season schedule, Husker gymnasts competed against UCLA, Michigan and Oregon State. Nebraska placed second against UCLA and Michigan but earned a first place victory against Oregon State. In last weekend’s Ames regional meet, Nebraska placed 2nd with LSU earning 1st place honors. Big Red gymnasts also competed against some of the individual qualifiers in meets over the past 2 months.
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Leading Nebraska into the NCAA all-around competition are seniors Jessie DeZiel and Desire’ Stephens, junior Hollie Blanske, and freshman Grace Williams. Huskers will also look to their key event specialists to score high in NCAA competition. Sophomore Jennie Laeng was crowned Big Ten Co-Champion on uneven bars at the Big Ten Championships in Ann Arbor, Mich. on March 21. Sophomore Ashley Lambert, who scored a perfect “10” two weeks in a row on the vault earlier this season, will look to achieve that score once again. She also hopes to tumble her way to new heights on floor exercise.
The Huskers look forward with great excitement and determination as they prepare to compete in the national spotlight. This team sticks together and supports each other, just like a family.
#championships #SB2K15 #FBF #WeTookThisYesterday pic.twitter.com/GgXClMsJfT
— Desire Stephens (@D_diddy93) March 20, 2015
Against nationally ranked competition, the Huskers will need to achieve near perfection on every routine. Husker Coach Dan Kendig has indicated throughout this season that his gymnasts need to achieve a combined team score on each event of 49.0 and higher to be really competitive. There have been meets this season where Nebraska failed to score 49.0 points in an event. Coach Kendig and the Husker gymnasts need to avoid repeating past mistakes if they want to stand on the podium on April 18 and 19th.
All-around competition and team semifinals will be held in two sessions on Friday, April 17, at 2 and 8 p.m. ET. The top three teams from each semifinal will advance to the Super Six competition Saturday, April 18, at 7 p.m. ET. The top four individuals in each event (plus ties) from Friday’s semifinals will compete in the individual event competition Sunday, April 19, at 3 p.m. ET
Follow your Huskers here for further updates and as always, GO BIG RED!!