At home for Regionals
Six USU gymnasts will be competing in the NCAA Regional Tournament this Friday.
While it could be the season finale for all six, for only one of them-senior Megan Tschida-it could be her collegiate curtain call.
Junior Nicki Felley and sophomore Heather Heinrich were selected as all-arounders while freshman Jasmine Minion will compete in vault.
Freshman Lyndsie Boone was selected to compete on the beam and freshman Nicole Simoneau was chosen to compete on bars.
USU head coach Ray Corn said for Tschida-a St. Paul, Minn. native-going to her hometown of Minneapolis is icing on the cake for her in what could be her final meet of her career.
“The competition is going to be totally awesome,” Corn said. “If we had two young ladies who had an opportunity to get in just by national rankings, it would be Nicole Simoneau on bars and Megan Tschida on floor. Now that the anxiety of whether we are going to qualify or not has kind of settled into us that we didn’t make it, we are very excited to be sending this many members to the regional meet.”
Tschida ranks seventh in the region with a Regional Qualifying Score (RQS) of 9.840 on floor, and was the co-WAC champion on floor at the conference meet with a season best of 9.925.
Tschida said she is excited for the regional meet and is fortunate for the opportunity to perform on floor, which is her best event.
“I’m at the point in my career where I’m hurt enough that I can only do one or two events, and I’m just glad that it’s floor and I was selected to regionals,” she said. “I just hope to do my best and have fun.”
In order for it not to be her last meet, Tschida will have to qualify for the NCAA National Championship meet and duplicate her WAC Championship performance in winning the apparatus.
“I do believe that if we have anyone qualify for the national championships, the performance that Megan had at the conference meet would have to be repeated and hopefully we’ll be going to Georgia,” Corn said.
Felley who has an RQS of 38.595 in the all-around, is ranked 17th in the region.
Felley said she anticipates the weekend and her goal is to qualify for nationals.
“I’m going to have to be doing my best on every event,” she said. “I’m excited because I feel that we’ve all trained pretty well these past two weeks.”
Heinrich, who has a 38.320 RQS, is ranked 19th in the region.
For both Felley and Heinrich, Corn said the two gymnasts will have to have “the meet of their lives” to give themselves the opportunity to the national championships.
“It’s not impossible but they are going to have to be absolutely perfect (to have a slot into the national championships),” he said.
Minion qualified to regionals with a 9.840 vault RQS, ranking 10th in the region.
Boone has a 9.600 RQS on beam, which ranked her 47th regionally.
Because Boone is ranked 47th, Corn said it will be tough for her to get into the national championships because of where she stands on a national basis.
Simoneau, who has an 9.845 RQS, is ranked sixth in the regionals.
Only event winners at the regional championships will advance to the national championships scheduled to take place April 24-26 in Athens, Ga.
“We entered our season at the WAC championships, and we feel this is our kick-off for the 2008-2009 season,” Corn said. “I just want the team to continue to compete to their potential and represent Utah State, and it’s a very big opportunity to do recruiting.”
This is just the fifth time in 31 years the Aggies have not advanced to regionals as a team, and the second in the last three years after not qualifying in 2006.
-candice.sandness@aggiemail.usu.edu