CEDAR CITY, Utah – The SUU gymnastics team is headed to Oklahoma to compete in the NCAA Regional Championships hosted at no. 1 ranked University of Oklahoma Saturday afternoon.
After a strong showing at the Mountain Rim Gymnastics Conference Championships Senior Brittney Jensen feels the Thunderbirds are ready for the regionals. “Conference and regionals are set up exactly the same. The pressure is the same and the level of competition is extremely high at both. Our team feels great and is ready for the challenge.”
Senior Jamie Armijo agrees with her fellow senior on the teams readiness. “Our team has been practicing all year for this and we look really good right now. We are strong and we are ready to go out and do our best.”
Armijo and Jensen lead the T-Birds on the uneven bars and floor exercise. As seniors, they both have experience competing at the Lloyd Noble Center in 2013 where the Thunderbirds finished in fifth. Armijo had her strongest bar routine at the competition and looks to go back even stronger. “We like competing in Oklahoma. This should be a great set up for us.”
Head coach Scott Bauman is looking for a calm gymnastics team this weekend. “The keys to our success are the girls staying calm, staying positive and keeping a good outlook down on the floor of competition.” Bauman added “This team knows how to work through hard days and I think that's why they have been so good in competition.”
The top-two teams will advance on to the NCAA National Championships hosted in Dallas, Texas on April 17-18.
The thunderbirds are the fourth seed behind no. 1 Oklahoma, no. 12 Oregon State, and no. 13 Penn State. North Carolina State and the University of Missouri round out the six teams selected.
Competition begins at 2:45 p.m. MST. The event will be televised live on the Fox Sports Southwest and Fox College Sports Central. Live stats can be found at suutirds.com.
CHAMPIONSHIP CENTRAL:
http://soonersports.com/fls/31000/microsites/ncaa/15wgym_ncaa_regional.html
CHANNEL FINDER:
http://www.soonersports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=209226355&DB_OEM_ID=31000&DB_OEM_ID=31000
TICKETS:
http://ev10.evenue.net/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/SEGetEventList?groupCode=GYWR&linkID=ou&shopperContext=&caller=&appCode
LIVE STATS:
http://www.soonersports.com/fls/31000/wgym-stats/2015.htm
