Utah State gymnastics to compete in Salt Lake region of NCAA tournament
For the third-consecutive year, the Utah State gymnastics team will be competing in the NCAA tournament.
“I feel really proud of the girls for being kind of viciously competitive all year,” said coach Nadalie Walsh. “They wanted it so bad that they were super determined every single meet. And when things didn’t go exactly how they wanted to it didn’t stop them from coming in and pushing harder.”
The athletes and coaches on the team gathered in the Laub Athletics-Academics Complex Monday afternoon to watch the tournament selection show. The room broke out in cheers and celebration when it was announced that USU had made the cut to compete in the tournament.
Utah State will be competing in the Salt Lake Regional, hosted by the University of Utah. The Aggies and Utes will be joined by UCLA, Washington, Southern Utah and Illinois.
“I’m super thankful to be in Salt Lake,” said senior Jillian Chappel. “That’s an amazing atmosphere and the crowd that they bring in will be an amazing thing.”
The Utes are the top seed in the region and are ranked No. 5 in the nation. UCLA is ranked No. 9 overall and Washington currently sits at No. 17.
The Aggies enter the tournament as the sixth seed in the region.
“We actually tend to do better when we go in, not necessarily as an underdog, but when we go in with big schools and we’re like, ‘Okay, we’re going to show them who we are’,” said junior Bailey McIntire.
Utah State showed incremental improvement in the tournament the past two seasons, finishing fifth in the region last year after a sixth-place finish two years ago.
The team underperformed its own expectations somewhat this season, but the gymnasts were able to achieve the performances they needed down the stretch to receive a bid for the tournament.
“They just went into regionals completely happy and really enjoying each other,” Walsh said. “I think that that was really transformational for them because they weren’t thinking about, ‘Oh, I want this better score’, they were more thinking about, ‘I’m just so proud to be an Aggie and I’m so excited’ and they were goofy.”
“When my team’s happy and goofy,” Walsh continued, “that’s when they perform at their best.”
Some of that goofiness was on display when the selection show began and the sound on the video wouldn’t play in the room. The problem was quickly resolved, however, leading to a round of applause from all of the athletes.
The tournament begins Saturday, April 2. The championships will be held in two sessions on Friday, April 15 and Saturday, April 16 in Fort Worth, Texas. The top two teams from each of the six regional locations will compete in the championships.
— thomas.sorenson@aggiemail.usu.edu
Twitter: @tomcat340