April 6, 2009
Live video stream for Thursday's NCAA Championship Session I
Live Scoring for Thursday's NCAA Championship Session I
University Park, Pa. - The Penn State women's gymnastics team will be competing in Session I of the NCAA Women's Gymnastics National Championships on Thursday, April 16 at the Bob Devaney Sports Center in Lincoln, Neb., beginning at 1:00 p.m. CT (2:00 p.m. ET). The Nittany Lions finished second at the NCAA Southeast Regional Championships on April 4 with a score of 195.800 to advance.
Penn State earned the No. 12 overall seed with a 392.040 National Qualifying Score (NQS), which was calculated by adding the Lions' Regional Qualifying Score (RQS) of 196.240 to the 195.800 score Penn State earned at the Southeast Regional.
Once the NQS is calculated, teams are ranked based on the NQS from 1 to 12. Teams 1, 4, 5, 8, 9 and 12 were placed in Group A and teams 2, 3, 6, 7, 10 and 11 placed in Group B.
Joining the Lions in the first session as part of Group A will be No. 1-seeded Georgia, No. 4 LSU, No. 5 Florida, No. 8 Oklahoma, No. 9 Stanford and No. 12 Penn State.
The rotation for the meet was also set, and Penn State will begin on the bye before bars, moving to bars, beam, bye before floor, floor and concluding on vault.
The second session that begins at 7:00 p.m. CT (8:00 p.m. ET) on Thursday, April 16 will feature No. 2-seeded Utah, No. 3 Alabama, No. 6 Oregon State, No. 7 UCLA, No. 10 Arkansas and No. 11 Illinois.
The top three in each of the two team preliminary sessions moves on to the Super Six, slated for Friday, April 17. The individual event finals will be held on Saturday, April 18.
Team qualifiers for the 2009 women's gymnastics championships are as follows:
Team - Region - Regional Score - National Qualifying Score
Georgia - Southeast - 197.700 - 394.955
Utah - West - 197.675 - 394.865
Alabama - Northeast - 197.000 - 393.925
LSU - Central - 196.875 - 393.635
Florida - North Central - 196.775 - 393.490
Oregon St. - Central - 196.800 - 393.320
UCLA - North Central - 196.625 - 393.205
Oklahoma - Northeast - 196.600 - 393.065
Stanford - South Central - 196.200 - 393.025
Arkansas - South Central - 196.300 - 392.740
Illinois - West - 196.700 - 392.715
Penn State - Southeast - 195.800 - 392.040
This will be Penn State's 15th overall NCAA Championships appearance and the first for the team since 2005, when the squad finished 10th in the nation at Auburn. Last season Brandi Personett advanced as an individual all-arounder and earned First Team NACGC/W All-America honors on the beam, also finishing fifth in the nation on the apparatus.
Personett, the 2009 Big Ten Gymnast of the Year, was also named the Northeast Regional Gymnast of the Year at last weekend's NCAA Regional Championships. In addition, 2009 Big Ten Co-Head Coach of the Year Steve Shephard earned Northeast Region Coach of the Year accolades and Nittany Lion assistant coaches Jessica Bastardi and Randy Monahan shared Northeast Region Co-Assistant Coach of the Year honors.
For more information on the Penn State women's gymnastics team, please visit www.GoPSUsports.com.