Utah Gymnasts Will Go To Tucson For NCAA Regional

March 22, 2004

INDIANAPOLIS -
The NCAA announced the pairings for the women's gymnastics regional championships today and No. 5 ranked Utah was placed in the South Central Regional in Tucson, Ariz. The seeded teams with Utah are No. 8 Florida and No. 18 Arizona. Rounding out the South Central regional field are No. 25 Arkansas, Illinois and Illinois-Chicago. The regional championship will be held in Arizona's McKale Center starting at 6:00 p.m. MST on April 3.

The top two teams from each of the six regionals will qualify for the 2004 NCAA Championships in Los Angeles on April 15-17. Utah hopes to continue its NCAA Championships qualifying streak by placing in the top two at Tucson: Utah is the only program in the nation to qualify for all 22 NCAA Championships and for the last 28 national championships including the AIAW years.

Utah drew the balance beam as its opening event at regionals in a random draw conducted by the NCAA office. The Utes will rotate from the beam to a bye, then resume competition on floor and vault before a final bye, and will finish on bars.

The six regional sites and their qualifying teams are listed later in this release. All regionals will be held on April 3 with the exception of the Central Regional in Baton Rouge, which will take place on April 2.

The final national rankings (based on regional qualifying score) were used to determine the seeding and selection into regionals. The final rankings follow: 1. UCLA 198.055, 2. Stanford 197.645, 3. Alabama 197.625, 4. Georgia 197.620, 5. Utah 197.575, 6. Brigham Young 197.525, 7. Louisiana State 197.400, 8. Florida 197.355, 9. Iowa State 197.210, 10. Oregon State 197.165, 11. Washington 197.010, 12. North Carolina 196.990, 13. Nebraska 196.960, 14. Denver 196.895, 15. Oklahoma 196.865, 16. Missouri 196.850, 17. Arizona State 196.830, 18. Arizona 196.785, 19. Michigan 196.750, 20. Iowa 196.73, 21. West Virginia 196.685, 22. North Carolina State 196.515, 23. Auburn 196.435, 24. Kent State 196.360, 25. Arkansas 196.235.

Two Ute individuals will go into postseason competition ranked in the nation's top-10 all-arounders. Senior Melissa Vituj is tied for fourth with a 39.660 RQS and junior Annabeth Eberle is sixth (39.650 RQS). Vituj is also ranked No. 5 on floor (9.960), No. 10 on beam (9.930) and No. 21 on vault (9.920). Eberle finished the regular season ranked No. 2 on vault (9.980). Freshman Rachel Tidd is tied for fourth on vault (9.955) and tied for 14th on bars (9.920).

2004 NCAA REGIONAL WOMEN'S GYMNASTICS FIELDS

South Central Region (Tucson, Ariz.)1. Utah2. Florida3. Arizona4. Arkansas5. Illinois6. Illinois-Chicago

West Region (Corvallis, Ore.)1. Alabama2. Oregon State3. Oklahoma4. California5. Boise State6. Cal State Fullerton

North Central Region (Denver, Colo.)1. Stanford2. Washington3. Denver4. Iowa5. Minnesota6. Southern Utah

Central Region  (Baton Rouge, La.)1. Brigham Young2. LSU3. Arizona State4. Auburn5. Kent State6. Michigan State

Northeast Region (University Park, Ariz.)1. Georgia2. Iowa State3. Missouri4. Michigan5. Penn State6. New Hampshire

Southeast Region (Raleigh, N.C.1. UCLA2. North Carolina3. Nebraska4. West Virginia5. North Carolina State6. Maryland

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