UCLA To Compete At NCAA Fayetteville Regional
March 24, 2014 | Gymnastics
Qualifying as individual all-arounders are Catherine Dion and Gabrielle May from Illinois-Chicago, Kim Gotlund from Northern Illinois, and Alyssa Tucker and Taryn Vanderpool from Southeast Missouri State. Individual event qualifiers competing in the regional are Rachel Updike from Missouri (vault), Brittainy Johnson from Texas Woman's (bars), Samantha King from Illinois State (beam) and Amanda Stepp from Northern Illinois.
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 in Birmingham, Ala. Apr. 18-20. In addition, the event winners at each regional will advance to the national championships (in that event only) if they are not part of a qualifying team or an all-around qualifier.
The Bruins will begin the regional meet on a bye before floor exercise and will finish on balance beam. Arkansas has Olympic order and will begin on vault. Utah begins on a bye before bars, Utah State starts on bars, UC Davis begins on beam, and Arizona State starts on floor.
UCLA has already faced three of its Regional opponents this season, going 1-2 against Utah, 2-0 against Arizona State and 1-0 against Utah State. The Bruins defeated both Arkansas and UC Davis at home last season.
Last season, UCLA placed second in its regional in Columbus, Ohio and went on to place fourth at the NCAA Championships. In 2012, the Bruins won the Fayetteville Regional over Arkansas to capture the program's 20th NCAA Regional title. UCLA enters this year's regional with a RQS of 197.005 and a season average of 196.777.
The six regional fields and sites are as follows:
Fayetteville Regional (at Arkansas), 4 pm CT: Utah, UCLA, Arkansas, Arizona State, Utah State, UC Davis
Athens Regional (at Georgia), 4 pm ET: Georgia, Michigan, Central Michigan, Ohio State, North Carolina State, Rutgers
Baton Rouge Regional (at LSU), 4 pm CT: LSU, Stanford, Auburn, Arizona, Kent State, Iowa State
Minneapolis Regional (at Minnesota), 6 pm CT: Oklahoma, Illinois, Minnesota, California, Southern Utah, San Jose State
Seattle Regional (at Washington), 4 pm PT: Alabama, Nebraska, Boise State, Denver, BYU, Washington
University Park Regional (at Penn State), 4 pm ET: Florida, Oregon State, Penn State, New Hampshire, Kentucky, Maryland
