March 21, 2011
SEATTLE - After posting an impressive score of 196.025 at the Pac-10 Championships on Saturday, the Huskies remained No. 17 in the RQS rankings to earn a top 18 seed for the NCAA Regionals. On Monday, the NCAA Committee announced the six host sites for the 2011 NCAA Regionals and the Huskies will compete in the Norman Regional hosted by Oklahoma on April 2 at 2 p.m. PT. The Huskies have an RQS 195.700 and rank 14th on vault (49.115), 16th on bars (49.045), 22nd on beam (48.735) and 23rd on floor (49.005). Individually, Samantha Walior and Ruby Engreitz rank 20th on the bars with 9.875's. At the 2010 NCAA Regionals, the Huskies were sent to Utah where they finished fifth with a 193.075. Seniors Kristen Linton and Walior tied for the Regional floor championship there with 9.900's to earn the automatic bids to the NCAA Championships. UW had made the NCAA Championships six times, the last in 1998 where they had their best finish, seventh. UW has made an NCAA Regional every year since 1982, winning the meet in 1998. "We are thrilled to have qualified to NCAA Regionals as the No. 3 seed," said head coach Joanne Bowers. "We found out at the Pac-10 Championship meet that any team can be beaten on any given day so we will go into Regionals knowing we can do it again. Our goal now is to qualify as a team to the NCAA National Championship meet and we need to place in the top two at Regionals to make that happen. We have to keep believing in ourselves, each other, enjoying the experiences, and we will be fine. I couldn't be more proud of this team this year and none of us want it to be over yet." The top two teams at each of the six Regional sites will automatically advance to the NCAA Championships in Cleveland, Ohio on April 15. The individual event champions and top all-rounder's also earn automatic bids. The Sooners are No. 5 in the country with a 196.695 and will be the No. 1 seed in their Regional. Utah is the two seed, followed by Washington, New Hampshire, Missouri and North Carolina. Washington and Oklahoma met once this year already as the Sooners were in Seattle on Jan. 28 and defeated the Huskies 196.175-195.100. The Sooners finish second at the NCAA Championships in 2010 behind UCLA and were second at this year's Big 12 Championships. Oklahoma leads the country on beam, ranks ninth on vault, 10th on bars and fourth on the floor. The No. 7 Utes hosted Washington on Feb. 11 winning the dual meet 196.975-195.475. Utah has an RQS of 196.570 and they rank 12th on vault, third on bars, eighth on beam and eighth on floor. At last year's NCAA Championships they finished sixth. New Hampshire and Washington met once back in 1994 and UW won the meet. The Wildcats finished second at the East Atlantic Gymnastics (EAGL) Championship with a 195.175. There were fourth last year at the University Park Regional with a 194.800. They are 32nd in the RQS with a 194.830 and 27th on vault and beam, 25th on bars and 30th on floor. Missouri is just one spot below New Hampshire at 33rd in the RQS with a 194.620. They are 29th on vault, 34th on bars, 33rd on beam and 29th on floor. They were fourth at this year's Big 12 Championships with a 194.975. They hosted the NCAA South Regional last year, winning the meet with a 196.500 and finished 12th at the NCAA Championships with a 194.600. UW and Missouri have never met in gymnastics. North Carolina is another team that UW has never faced. The Tar Heels are 36th with a 194.250. They are 43rd on the vault, 37th on the bars, 34th on the beam and 44th on floor. They won this year's EAGL Championship with a 195.300. At the 2010 NCAA Columbia Regional they were sixth.
Denver Regional - University of Denver
Tuscaloosa Regional - University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa
Corvallis Regional - Oregon State University
Ann Arbor Regional - University of Michigan
Norman Regional - University of Oklahoma
Athens Regional - University of Georgia |
