Gymnastics Places Sixth at NCAA Northeast Regional
4/12/2003 12:00:00 AM | Women's Gymnastics
Gymnastics Places Sixth at NCAA Northeast Regional
4/12/2003
ANN ARBOR, Mich. ? Against some very tough competition, the Pittsburgh gymnastics team placed sixth out of six teams at the NCAA Northeast Regional at the University of Michigan on Saturday evening. The Panthers' 194.5 points, however, was the eighth-highest point total in school history and the fifth top 10 score recorded this season.
Four individual single-season event total records were broken by the Panthers in the meet and four gymnasts finished in the top 10 of an event.
Michigan won the competition with 196.825 points, followed by Arizona State (196.725), Iowa State (196.525), Penn State (196.175), New Hampshire (195.4), and the Panthers. Michigan and Arizona State, by finishing in the top two, qualified for the NCAA Championships.
Penn State's Katie Rowland, who qualified as an individual all-arounder for the nationals, won the regional vault title with a 9.95. The top Panthers finisher was senior Nathalie Sulpher (Ottawa, Canada/Franco-Quest) with a 9.825, tying her for the fourth-highest score all-time. She finished in a tie for fourth place in the event on Saturday. Fellow senior Heather Launse (Severna Park, Md./Severna Park) scored a 9.75 on her vault, which gave her 126.55 points on vault this season, a new school record.
There was a four-way tie for first place on the uneven bars with 9.9 scores being recorded by Arizona State's Ashley Kelly and Michigan's Lauren Mirkovich, Calli Ryals and Jenny Deiley. Junior Diandra O'Connor (Owasso, Okla./Owasso) was the Panthers' top finisher with a 9.775, tying her for 18th in the event. Sulpher scored a 9.75 on her routine, giving her 126.975 points on bars for the year, breaking Brenda Stevens' 1996 total of 125.25 points.
Kelly earned her second individual title on the balance beam for the Sun Devils, earning a 9.9825 from the judges. Junior Alyse Zeffiro (Holbrook, N.Y./Sachem) tied for fifth in the event with a 9.875, which also gave her the single-season event record on beam with 127.6 points, breaking O'Connor's mark from a year ago. Freshman Roslyn Singleton (Lancaster, Pa./Manheim Township) also cracked the top 10 on beam, tying for ninth with a score of 9.85. The Panthers' beam total of 48.875 points was the fourth-highest in the competiton.
Rowland and Ryals each picked up a second individual title by tying for first place on the floor exercise with a total of 9.95 points, along with Iowa State's Erin Dethloff. Zeffiro earned her second top 10 finish with a 9.9, placing her in a tie for eighth in the NCAA Regionals. Zeffiro edged out teammate Erika Goldberg (Voorhees, N.J./Eastern), who earned a 9.85 from the judges. Goldberg was ahead of Zeffiro by 0.025 points heading into the meet but it was Zeffiro that won by the same margin to earn the single-season event record with 117.25 points.
Sulpher and Launse both finished their Pittsburgh careers in the top 10 in scoring. Sulpher finished with 1,218.6 points, the seventh most in school history, while Launse finished with 1,126.775 points, 10th most in school history and just 2.225 away from ninth place.