FORT WORTH, Texas—Utah senior gymnast
Shannon McNatt was honored with the NCAA's prestigious Elite 90 award tonight at a banquet hosted in conjunction with the 2019 NCAA Gymnastics Championships, which start Friday.
McNatt is the second Ute to win an Elite 90, which began in 2009-10 and is awarded to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade point average participating at the finals site of each NCAA Championship. Utah skier Julie Mohagen was the 2017-18 NCAA Ski Championship Elite 90 recipient.
A senior beam specialist from Houston, Texas, McNatt maintains a 3.99 cumulative GPA with a double major in quantitative analysis of markets and organizations (QAMO) and economics. She is a three-time WCGA Scholar All-American and three-time first-team Pac-12 All-Academic selection. Her athletic accomplishments include winning the 2017 NCAA Regional balance beam title as a sophomore.
Student-athletes must have participated in their sport for at least two years at their school and must be a designated member of the squad at the championship to be eligible for the Elite 90.
Utah opens NCAA competition Friday at noon CT/11 a.m. MT in the Fort Worth Convention Center. The meet will be televised on ESPN2, streamed on ESPN3 and broadcast on ESPN 700 radio. Competing with No. 5 Utah in the afternoon semifinal are No. 2 UCLA, No. 3 LSU and No. 6 Michigan. The evening semifinal (6 p.m. CT/5 p.m. MT) features No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 4 Denver, No. 7 Georgia and No. 8 Oregon State. The top two teams from each semi will advance to the NCAA Final on Saturday, Apr. 20 at 6 p.m. CT/5 p.m. MT.