Beavers Sent to Georgia for Regionals
March 21, 2016 | Women's Gymnastics
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The 2016 National Collegiate Women's Gymnastics Championships regional selections were announced Monday afternoon by the NCAA Women's Gymnastics Selection Committee. Oregon State, which has reached the regional round of championships for the 42nd straight year, will travel to the east coast for the first time in 2016 to participate in the NCAA Athens Regional Championships hosted by the University of Georgia.
Six teams, four all-around competitors (who are not on a qualifying team) and two individual event specialist per event [who has a minimum Regional Qualifying Score (RQS) of 9.4] were named to each of the six predetermined host sites.– Alabama, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Utah.
Joining No. 13 Oregon State (196.575 Regional Qualifying Score) at the Athens Regional Sat., April 2 at 1 p.m. PT, will be No. 3 LSU (197.695), No. 9 Georgia (197.010), No. 22 Arizona (196.155), George Washington (195.905) and Michigan State (195.385).
It is the first time since the 2008 NCAA Championships that Oregon State have competed in Athens.
The top 18-teams are seeded nationally, based on RQS, and placed into the bracket. Teams 19-36 are organized into three pods (19-24, 25-30 and 31-36) and placed geographically at one of the six sites, beginning with teams 19-24 followed by teams 25-30 and then finally teams 31-36. Seeding determined at the time of regional selections will be maintained throughout the championships. All-around competitors and event specialists are assigned to their respective geographic region.
Individual all-around qualifiers for the 2016 NCAA Athens Regional Championships are: Brittni Watkins from North Carolina State, Morgan Lane from North Carolina, Tyra McKellar from Towson and Brittany Stover from William & Mary.
Individual event at-large qualifiers are: vault – Kathy Tang, Maryland and Chelsea Knight, North Carolina State; bars – Abbie Epperson, Maryland and Kaitlynn Hedelund, North Carolina; beam – Mary Elle Arduino, Towson and Nicole Wild, North Carolina State; and floor – Kathy Tang and Macey Roberts, Maryland.
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 Fort Worth, Texas, April 15-16, hosted by Texas Woman's University and the Knight Eady Sports Group. The top two teams from the Iowa City, Salt Lake City and Tuscaloosa regionals will compete in one of the semifinals, and the top two teams from the Minneapolis, Ann Arbor and Athens regionals will compete in the other semifinal.
In addition, the event winners at each regional site will advance to the national championships (in that event only) if they are not part of a qualifying team or an all-around qualifier.
