Ute Gymnasts Earn Top Seed into Pac-12 Championships

March 14, 2016

SALT LAKE CITY -

Pac-12 Championships Next Up

Utah has earned the No. 1 seed for the 2016 Pac-12 Gymnastics Championship on Saturday, Mar. 19 in Seattle. The Utes will compete in the evening session against seeds 2-4 (UCLA, California and Oregon State) starting at 6 p.m. PDT (7 p.m. MDT) in Alaska Airlines Arena. Competing in the early session are seeds 5-8 (Washington, Stanford, Arizona and Arizona State) at 1 p.m. PDT/1 p.m. MDT. Both sessions will be televised live nationally on the Pac-12 Networks. Live scoring will be available at www.gohuskies.com. For Utah updates on Twitter, follow @utahathletics.

For the Record

With an average home attendance of 14,928, Utah gymnastics has won its sixth all-sports women's attendance title (the Utes also won in 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2015) and its 32nd gymnastics national attendance title. Utah edged South Carolina women's basketball (14,925) for the 2015-16 women's attendance title. Utah's 14,928 average is the second-best ever for a gymnastics team, behind last year's Ute team, which averaged 14,950 ... Utah finished the regular season with a 9-1 overall record and tied for first in the Pac-12 with UCLA--both with 5-1 conference marks. It is Utah's third-straight Pac-12 regular-season title.

Pac-12 Championship Notes

Utah's first event at the 2016 Championships will be the balance beam. Utah's rotation will be beam, floor, vault, bars ... Utah is the two-time defending Pac-12 champion ... Three different champions have been crowned in the first four years of the Pac-12 Championship: UCLA (2012), Oregon State (2013) and Utah (2014, 2015) ... Utah is the No. 1 seed for the fourth-straight year and the only team to finish in the top three all four years. The Utes placed second in 2012, third in 2013 and first in 2014 and 2015 ... Utah lost multiple Pac-12 champions to graduation after last season, including Pac-12 all-around champions Corrie Lothrop (2012), Tory Wilson (2014) and Georgia Dabritz (2015) ... Utah's 198.150 at last year's championship is the best score in the four-year history of the tournament ... Utah holds the Pac-12 Championship attendance record for single session (14,402) and combined session (23,568), set last year in the Huntsman Center.

Pac-Facts

The Utes won both the regular season and tournament titles in 2014 and 2015... Three Pac-12 teams qualified into the NCAA Championships last year, with Utah placing second, Stanford fifth and UCLA 11th ... Utah is 336-57-4 (85%) all-time against Pac-12 teams. Utah's series record against each team follows: Arizona (58-0-0), Arizona State (70-16-1), California (16-0), Oregon State (65-9-0), Stanford (27-6), UCLA (50-26-1) and Washington (50-0-2).

Utah in the National Rankings

Utah held steady at No. 5 in the national rankings after scoring a season-high 197.675 in a win over No. 9 Georgia (196.125) last Saturday. Breanna Hughes is ranked No. 10 in the nation in the all-around (39.490 RQS) and on vault (9.90, tie). She is also ranked No. 12 on floor (9.925, tie) and No. 13 on bars (9.910). Maddy Stover has Utah's highest individual ranking at No. 9 on beam (9.90, tie). Kassandra Lopez and Baely Rowe are tied for 14th on bars (9.905) and Sabrina Schwab is tied for No. 22 on floor (9.905). See sidebars on page 3 for Utah's complete rankings and the criteria behind the RQS.

Quick Sticks

The Utes will host the NCAA Salt Lake Regional on Apr. 2. The other teams in the Salt Lake Regional (and the other five regionals) will be announced at 2 p.m. MT on Monday, Mar. 21 on the NCAA Selection Show at NCAA.com. See Postseason Preview for more ... Utah's only loss was at UCLA by .025 (197.100-197.075) on Feb. 6 ... Utah has topped 197.000 in the last seven meets (3 home, 4 away). Utah has posted its best scores of the season in the last two meets (197.525 at Michigan on Mar. 4 and 197.675 vs. Georgia on Mar. 12).

Ute Insider

Sophomore Maddy Stover injured her shoulder in last week's meet and will not compete on floor in the postseason. She hopes to be available on beam, where she is Utah's sixth competitor and is ranked ninth in the country ... Scheduled to return to the floor lineup is sophomore Samantha Partyka, who has a 9.975 best on the event. She has been unable to train or compete on floor in the last three weeks due to a lower leg injury ... Utah has used a different lineup (either personnel or order of competitors) in every meet ... Utes have won six Pac-12 weekly awards: Sabrina Schwab has been the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week three times (Jan. 12, Feb. 2, Feb. 13), Breanna Hughes was Specialist of the Week on Jan. 19 and Mar. 1, and Rowe was Specialist of the Week on Jan. 26.

Chalk Talk

Utah enters the postseason having beaten four top-15 opponents in the last four meets (three on the road). The wins were against then then-No. 12 Stanford, No. 14 California, No. 5 Michigan and No. 9 Georgia ... Senior Breanna Hughes has three of Utah's best scores this season--a 39.650 (twice) in the all-around, a 10.0 on floor and a 9.975 on bars. Also scoring a 9.975 were Maddy Stover (on beam) and Samantha Partyka (on floor) ... Utes have won 31-of-40 individual event titles and seven all-arounds ... Ute winners: Hughes (17), Stover (5), Baely Rowe (5), Partyka (4), Kailah Delaney (3), Sabrina Schwab (3), Kari Lee (2) and Kassandra Lopez (2) ... The Utes are 230-240 in hit routines (routines without a fall). The Utes hit all 24 routines at UCLA, at Stanford and at Michigan. They counted a fall in one meet (on floor vs. Oregon State) ... Gymnasts who have hit every routine are Partyka (31-31) , Lopez (23-23), Schwab (20-20), MaKenna Merrell (19-19) and Erika Muhaw (1-1).

Seeding the Sessions

Teams were seeded into the Pac-12 Championship according to their regional qualifying score (RQS), which also determines the national rankings. Seven of the eight Pac-12 teams enter the conference championship ranked in the nation's top 25: No. 5 Utah (197.205 RQS), No. 9 UCLA (196.940), No. 11 California (196.555), No. 14 Oregon State (196.450), No. 17 Washington (196.360), No. 19 Stanford (196.305) and No. 21 Arizona (196.155). See page 3 for the complete top 25 ... Teams and individual finishes at the Pac-12 Championship are determined by score, regardless of session ... Capsules on all eight teams in the Pac-12 Championships can be found on page 4.

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