The fields for the NCAA Regional Women's Gymnastics Championships on Saturday, Apr. 4 were announced this afternoon, and Utah is the top seed in the Berkeley Regional hosted by the University of California. The meet will start at 6 p.m. Pacific Time (7 p.m. MT) in Haas Pavilion.
Utah, which moved up to No. 3 in the national rankings after winning the Pac-12 Championship last Saturday, earned the accompanying No. 3 seed into the NCAA Regionals. The Red Rocks will be joined by No. 10 Georgia, No. 15 Boise State, No. 20 California, Utah State and BYU. The top two teams will advance to the NCAA Championships in Fort Worth, Texas, April 17-19.
With a 197.670 Regional Qualifying Score (RQS), Utah enters NCAA play ranked behind only 2014 NCAA co-champions Oklahoma (197.895) and Florida (197.790). A team’s RQS is obtained by taking the six best scores, three of which must have come on the road, dropping the high score and then averaging the remaining five scores.
The Red Rocks will try to qualify for a record 40th-straight national championship without their top ranked all-arounder, senior All-American Tory Wilson. Wilson, who is ranked No. 9 in the nation in the all-around, is having surgery this afternoon on both feet after suffering a Lisfranc (mid-foot) fracture to her left foot and rupturing her right Achilles on the floor exercise at the Pac-12 Championship. Utah will still have Georgia Dabritz, who won the 2015 Pac-12 All-Around and was named the 2015 Pac-12 Gymnastics Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
The Red Rocks have met four of the teams in the Berkeley Region this season and are 3-1 against them. Their sole loss (Utah is 18-1 overall and 11-1 in the regular season) was at Georgia on Mar. 14. Utah defeated BYU on Jan. 9, Boise State on Jan. 16 and Cal at the Pac-12 Championship on Mar. 21.
Utah's rotation order, as designated by the NCAA is: bars, beam, bye, floor, vault, bye. Overall, this is a good draw for the Red Rocks. Their top competition is Georgia, the only team to defeat the Red Rocks this year, who has to travel across the country for the meet (where the Red Rocks had to travel to Georgia for the first meeting). Utah handily defeated every other competitor except for Utah State, who they did not face this season. They start with one of their best events in bars and finish on their best event, vault.
NCAA Regional Fields (in order of seed)
Ames Regional 1. LSU
2. Nebraska
3. Denver
4. Washington
5. Michigan State
6. Iowa State
Auburn Regional 1. Alabama
2. Auburn
3. Minnesota
4. Iowa
5. Maryland
6. George Washington
Berkeley Regional 1. Utah
2. Georgia
3. Boise State
4. California
5. Utah State
6. BYU
Columbus Regional 1. Michigan
2. UCLA
3. Arizona
4. Central Michigan
5. Kentucky
6. Ohio State
Morgantown Regional 1. Florida
2. Stanford
3. Illinois
4. Arkansas
5. New Hampshire
6. West Virginia
Norman Regional 1. Oklahoma
2. Oregon State
3. Penn State
4. Southern Utah
5. Missouri
6. NC State
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>.<a href="https://twitter.com/UtahGymnastics">@UtahGymnastics</a> team is headed to Berkeley, Calif. regional! They'll be joined by fellow Utah teams BYU, USU <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/goutes?src=hash">#goutes</a> <a href="http://t.co/yZpH3Yoyp9">pic.twitter.com/yZpH3Yoyp9</a></p>— Utah Athletics (@utahathletics) <a href="https://twitter.com/utahathletics/status/580099090131722241">March 23, 2015</a></blockquote>
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