March 23, 2018
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The No. 28 Penn State women's gymnastics team heads to Champaign, Illinois, for the 2018 Big Ten Women's Gymnastics Championships on Saturday, March 24.
The 2018 Big Ten Women's Gymnastics Championships are hosted by the University of Illinois at the State Farm Center. The meet is split into two sessions with the afternoon session taking place at 3 p.m. (EDT) and the evening session is at 8 p.m. (EDT)
The No. 28 Nittany Lions will be competing in the afternoon session against Michigan State, No. 14 Nebraska, and Rutgers.
The evening session features No. 27 Illinois, No. 36 Iowa, No. 29 Maryland, No. 7 Michigan, No. 23 Minnesota, and No. 24 Ohio State.
Penn State enters the Big Ten Championships following a fourth-place finish at the Big Five Meet in Piscataway, New Jersey, last weekend.
As a team last weekend, Penn State recorded scores of 49.050 (vault), 48.175 (uneven bars), 48.325 (balance beam), and 48.825 (floor exercise) en route to a team score of 194.375.
Individually, freshman Lauren Bridgens won her third vault title of the season with a score of 9.900, as she was the last gymnast to compete on the vault on the day.
FOLLOW ALONG
The meet will be aired live on the Big Ten Network with Dean Linke and Alina Weinstein on the call. Fans can also watch the meet on BTN2Go.com and live stats can be found on fightingillini.com.
PENN STATE ROTATION
Penn State will be competing in Olympic order (vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise).
SCOUTING THE AFTERNOON SESSION
The afternoon session is made up of Michigan State, No. 14 Nebraska, No. 28 Penn State, and Rutgers.
In the Big Ten standings according to the regional qualifying score (RQS), Nebraska ranks second (196.660), Penn State is sixth (195.980), Michigan State is ninth (194.845), and Rutgers is 10th (194.205).
SCOUTING THE EVENING SESSION
The evening session features No. 27 Illinois, No. 36 Iowa, No. 29 Maryland, No. 7 Michigan, No. 23 Minnesota, and No. 24 Ohio State.
In the Big Ten standings according to the RQS, Michigan is first (197.075), Minnesota is third (196.160), Ohio State is fourth (196.085), Illinois is fifth (196.020), Maryland is seventh (195.930), and Iowa is eighth (195.680).
PENN STATE AT THE BIG TEN MEET
Penn State will be making its 27th appearance at the Big Ten Championships this weekend.
The Nittany Lions have finished second at the Big Ten meet, a conference record, 11 times.
At the Big Ten meet, the Nittany Lions have recorded 25 individual champions on 18 event titles and seven all-around titles.
Penn State's 25 individual champions rank third-best among Big Ten programs and Penn State's seven all-around titles are tied for second-most.
LAST YEAR'S BIG TEN MEET
Michigan captured its fourth-straight Big Ten Women's Gymnastics Championships crown with a 197.300 followed by Illinois (196.875), Iowa (196.725), Nebraska (196.475), Ohio State (195.525), Michigan State and Penn State (195.200), Minnesota (195.175), Rutgers (194.700) and Maryland (193.625).
In the all-around, Briannah Tsang finished seventh (39.275) and Sabrina Garcia took 11th (39.100).
In addition to the all-around, Garcia tied for second on the uneven bars (9.900) and Tsang tied for third on the vault (9.875).
WEEKLY BIG TEN HONORS
Freshman Lauren Bridgens and senior Briannah Tsang have both garnered multiple weekly honors from the Big Ten conference this season. Bridgens has been named the Big Ten Freshman of the Week five times, while Tsang has been tabbed the Big Ten Gymnast of the Week four times.
ALL-BIG TEN HONORS
Lauren Bridgens and Briannah Tsang were tabbed with First Team All-Big Ten honors, while Sabrina Garcia was named a Second Team All-Big Ten honoree.
For Tsang she tallied her third-straight season with First Team All-Big Ten honors.
RAISING THE BAR
Heading into the Big Ten Championships, the Penn State uneven bars lineup ranks tied for 10th in the nation with a regional qualifying score of 49.275.
The Nittany Lions have ranked as high as seventh in the nation on the uneven bars (March 12).
TSANG'S 67 TITLES
Senior Briannah Tsang has captured 49 individual titles and 18 all-around titles in her Nittany Lion career.
In 2018, Tsang has 26 titles to her name. On the year, she has won seven floor exercise titles, six vault titles, three balance beam titles, two uneven bars titles, and has captured at least a share of the all-around title eight times.
SIX-IN-A-ROW
Senior Briannah Tsang opened the 2018 season by capturing a share of the all-around title in each of the first six meets. With her fourth-straight all-around title on Jan. 27, Tsang became the first Nittany Lion since Sharaya Musser to win four-straight all-around titles (2/23-3/16/13).
RECORD SETTING PERFORMANCES
On the year, the Nittany Lions have set four PSU record book performances. As a team, the Nittany Lions have recorded the No. 2 (49.475) and tied-No. 4 (49.375) scores on the uneven bars. Individually, Lauren Bridgens set the school record on the uneven bars (10.0) and Briannah Tsang tied the No. 5 score on the floor exercise (9.950).
TRENDING UP
Prior to the Big Five Meet, Penn State recorded season-best scores in three-straight meets. Heading into the Big Five Meet, the Nittany Lions recorded a 196.150 (Feb. 24), a 196.650 (March 4), and a 196.675 (March 9).
MATHEMATICALLY LOCKED
As of March 18, the Penn State women's gymnastics team is "mathematically locked" for one of the 36 spots in the 2018 NCAA Regional round, according to RoadtoNationals.com. With having secured one of the 36 spots, Penn State will be automatically placed in the University Park Regional on April 7.
Mathematically locked is defined as "mathematically impossible to miss regionals (even if all other teams got 200 on all remaining meets)."
PERFECT 10
On March 9, freshman Lauren Bridgens recorded the first perfect 10 on the uneven bars in program history. Bridgens' perfect 10 is also the 10th perfect 10 in program history and the first since Feb. 13, 2010.
NEXT UP
The No. 28 Penn State women's gymnastics team will host one of six regional sites on April 7. The meet is slated for a 4 p.m. start at Rec Hall. The teams and participants in the University Park Regional will be announced on Monday, March 26, at 4 p.m. (EDT) on www.ncaa.com.