March 31, 2009
• Complete Notes in PDF Format
• NC State NCAA Regional Page
University Park, Pa. - The 12th-ranked Penn State women's gymnastics team travels to Raleigh, N.C., and the campus of North Carolina State University for the 2009 NCAA Regional Championships on Saturday, April 4 at 4:00 p.m. ET. Live scoring and video will be available by clicking on the above links.
Penn State joins No. 1 Georgia, No. 13 Nebraska, No. 21 West Virginia, No. 29 NC State and No. 30 North Carolina for the meet, which will be held at Reynolds Coliseum.
This will be the 35th consecutive trip to the NCAA Regional Championships for the Nittany Lions, who last advanced to the NCAA National Championships as a team in 2005, where they finished 10th overall. Last season, junior Brandi Personett (Katy, Texas) finished fifth in the country on beam as an individual all-arounder at NCAAs, earning NACGC/W First Team All-American honors.
The top two teams and the top two all-around competitors not on an advancing team from each of the six Regionals will receive an automatic berth to the national championships. In addition, individual event winners will also advance if they are not a part of an advancing team or one of the all-around qualifiers. The 2009 NCAA Championships will be hosted by the University of Nebraska from April 16-18.
Penn State will open up the 2009 NCAA Regional Championships on bars and move to beam in the second rotation. After a bye, the Nittany Lions will compete on floor in rotation four. Vault will follow in the fifth rotation before Penn State concludes the meet with a bye.
At the Big Ten Championships on March 21 in Champaign, Ill., Penn State recorded its second-highest score of the season and the top mark for a road meet, but the Lions finished third at the meet, falling to Big Ten Champion Michigan (197.075) and Illinois (196.750). Brandi Personett defended her Big Ten floor title from a year ago, tying with Illinois' Sarah Schmidt and Michigan's Kylee Botterman for this season's title with a career-high-tying 9.950. She fell just shy of her third straight Big Ten all-around title, tying for second with a 39.475, her fourth-best score of the season. Freshman Whitney Bencsko (Pompton Plains, N.J.) placed 15th in the all-around competition with a 38.900. In all, 14 Big Ten gymnasts posted all-around scores of 39.050 or better. Minnesota's Carmelina Carabajal claimed the Big Ten crown with a 39.500.
For more information on the Penn State women's gymnastics team, please visit www.GoPSUsports.com.