March 31, 2008

The ninth-ranked UCLA Gymnastics team will travel cross country to compete at the NCAA regionals for the third-straight year. The Bruins have been assigned to the NCAA Southeast Regional Championships in Gainesville, FL. The meet will take place at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center on Saturday, Apr. 12 at 7 pm. Joining the Bruins in the Regional will be No. 3 seed Florida, No. 15 seed Nebraska, No. 21 seed North Carolina State, No. 25 seed West Virginia and No. 34 seed North Carolina.

The top two teams, as well as the top two all-around competitors not from an advancing team, at each regional will receive a berth in the NCAA Championships, which will be held in Athens, GA on Apr. 24-26. In addition, individual event winners who did not already qualify with their team or as an all-arounder will advance.

Also competing at the meet will be five at-large individual all-around competitors and four at-large individual event specialists.

UCLA will begin the regional meet on uneven bars then will move to beam, bye before floor, floor and vault. The Bruins will end the competition on a bye. Nebraska begins on vault, Florida begins on a bye before bars, North Carolina State starts on beam, West Virginia starts on a bye before floor, and North Carolina begins on floor.

Last season, UCLA won the Southeast Regional in West Virginia and has won 17 Regional titles overall, including eight in the last nine years.

The six regional fields and sites are as follows:

Southeast Region (Gainesville, FL, host Florida) - No. 3 Florida, No. 9 UCLA, No. 15 Nebraska, No. 21 North Carolina State, No. 25 West Virginia, No. 34 North Carolina

Northeast Region (University Park, PA, host Penn State) - No. 1 Georgia, No. 12 Auburn, No. 13 Denver, No. 22 Penn State, No. 29 BYU, No. 30 Iowa State

North Central Region (Minneapolis, MN, host Minnesota) - No. 2 Utah, No. 11 Arkansas, No. 14 Arizona, No. 23 Iowa, No. 27 Southern Utah, No. 28 Minnesota

South Central Region (Norman, OK, host Oklahoma) - No. 4 Alabama, No. 10 Oklahoma, No. 16 Boise State, No. 19 Arizona State, No. 24 Illinois, No. 36 Southeast Missouri State

West Region (Corvallis, OR, host Oregon State) - No. 5 Michigan, No. 8 Oregon State, No. 17 Michigan State, No. 31 Washington, No. 32 San Jose State, No. 35 Sacramento State

Central Region (Baton Rouge, LA, host LSU) - No. 6 Stanford, No. 7 LSU, No. 18 Missouri, No. 20 Kentucky, No. 26 Kent State, No. 33 Ohio State