ANDREA ARLOTTA TO COMPETE IN NCAA GYMNASTICS CHAMPIONSHIPS THIS WEEKEND
4/23/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Gymnastics
April 23, 2007
PITTSBURGH - Pitt senior Andrea Arlotta will represent the Panthers the NCAA Gymnastics Championships as an all-arounder. She'll contend for a national title this week in the three-day competition spanning from April 26-28. The championships are being hosted by Utah in Salt Lake City and will feature several former Olympians and national team members. Arlotta will compete in the first session on Thursday, scheduled for 3 p.m. EST.
Arlotta (Cincinnati, Ohio/Northwest) is the team's first national qualifier since the 2005 season when her teammate Leila Tait won the regional balance beam title. An outstanding senior season led to Arlotta's national bid as she finished fourth in the all-around at the NCAA Northeast Regional Championships with a 39.050. Arlotta began the competition on the balance beam where she led the team with a season-high 9.800. Moving on to the floor exercise, she anchored the event with a 9.775 and went on to become the team's top competitor on the vault with a season-high 9.825. Her final event of the evening was the uneven bars, where she scored a 9.650. At the conclusion of the competition, it was announced the Arlotta was named the 2007 Northeast Region Gymnast of the Year. She was the leader of two qualifying all-arounders, the other being Arkansas' Casey Jo Magee.
Throughout the season and her career, Arlotta has been a leader both vocally and through example. She currently holds the school record for most career points at 1,570.380 with one more meet to go. Arlotta is a 14-time All-EAGL selection, and she picked up four first team honors this season. In 2007, she was a three-time EAGL Gymnast of the Week and also earned Specialist of the Week honors. In the EAGL Championships, she captured the uneven bars title, scoring a career-high 9.900. In 2007, Arlotta won six uneven bars titles, five floor exercise titles and two all-around titles.
On Thursday, Arlotta will compete with the Oklahoma Sooners. Their rotation begins with a bye before the uneven bars. The Panthers competed at Oklahoma this season which should give Arlotta some familiarity with the team. Other teams competing in the morning session include Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Nebraska and Oregon State. The teams competing in session two include Denver, LSU, Michigan, Stanford, UCLA and host Utah. The all-around champion will be determined from both sessions' scores on Thursday. The top three teams in each session will advance to the "Super Six" on Friday. Additionally, the top four competitors on each event in each session on Thursday will advance to Saturday's event finals.
Complete NCAA coverage is available through Utah's website at www.utahutes.com.