GymDawgs Headed To Salt Lake For NCAA Regionals
March 30, 2016 | Gymnastics
SEATTLE – UW gymnastics will head to NCAA Regionals for the 34th time in 35 years, as the GymDawgs are the No. 3 seed in the Salt Lake City regional meet hosted by the Utah Utes. The meet is scheduled for Saturday, April 2, at 6 p.m. MT/5 PT and will be streamed live.
With six teams in attendance, UW must finish in the top-2 in order to move on to the NCAA Championships on April 15-17.
“I truly think this team can advance,” UW head coach Joanne Bowers said. “We've done a great job learning from every opportunity all season, and March was a really great month for us. People are stepping up. We are ready to have that meet where everything comes together and we show what we are truly capable of.”
The GymDawgs are one of three Pac-12 teams that be in attendance, as Pac-12 Champion and No. 2 seed UCLA will join No. 1-seeded Utah and No. 3 seeded UW. This will be the second trip for the GymDawgs to Salt Lake in 2016, as UW competed at Utah earlier this season and posted a 196.250.
“I love competing there,” senior captain Allison Northey said. “The atmosphere will be electric and our team has performed well on the road and on the big stage. It's a comfortable place for us to compete. The main thing for us is staying within our own Washington bubble and focusing on ourselves. We've been working hard and this team has a really good energy about it, so we just have to go out and perform.”
The GymDawgs are drawing inspiration from UW women's basketball, as the Huskies earned their first-ever trip to the Final Four of the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament.
“I was so inspired by what our women's basketball team has done,” Bowers said. “We can look at their situation and apply it to ourselves. We have a tough draw, and people probably aren't predicting that we will advance, but in our locker room, we believe in ourselves and each other.”
Meet Information
NCAA Regionals, Salt Lake Region – Huntsman Arena – TICKETS
April 2, 2016 – 6 p.m. MT, 5 PT
Live Stream · Live Stats · Follow on Twitter
Scouting the Field
The Salt Lake Regional includes No. 5 Utah, No. 8 UCLA, No. 23 Southern Utah, No. 29 Illinois and No. 32 Utah State. UCLA beat Utah at the Pac-12 Championships on March 19 in Seattle. UW has faced both Utah and UCLA twice this season, falling both times. The GymDawgs posted strong showings in head-to-head meets against both.
UW Event Previews
Overall Ranking – No. 17; RQS – 196.360; Team High – 196.660
Vault, No. 19, 49.050 – Northey has led the GymDawgs on vault this season, with three vault titles and nine top-3 finishes. The GymDawgs have three vaulters ranked in the top-100 – No. 42 Northey, No. 73 Alexandra Yacalis and No. 99 Joslyn Goings. Yacalis has four top-3 finishes and Goings has one. Sophomore Hailey Burleson has been consistent all season, with two top-3 finishes and a 9.8 or higher in five of her last six meets.
Bars, No. 25, 49.030 – Kaitlyn Duranczyk is the GymDawgs' leader on bars, as the Pac-12 Champion has won bars titles in her last five meets. She is ranked No. 23 nationally with seven total bars titles and nine top-3 finishes. Northey has one bars title this season and seven top-3 finishes. Burleson, Goings and Zoey Schaefer each have top3 finishes as well.
Beam, No. 19, 49.175 – Northey has led the GymDawgs deep beam lineup as the anchor for most of the season, holding a No. 28 ranking nationally. She has five beam titles this season and eight top-3 finishes. Goings has been a huge contributor as well, with a No. 53 ranking and two bars titles to go with five top-3 finishes. Duranczyk has one title and two top-3 finishes, while Malory Rose and Stephanie Stowe each have been very consistent and have multiple top-3 finishes.
Floor, No. 24, 49.135 – The GymDawgs are led on floor by Northey with five titles and seven top-3 finishes. She has posted a 9.85 or higher in her last five meets. Duranczyk, Schaefer and Yacalis have three top-3 finishes apiece.
All-Around – Northey is the No. 15-ranked all-arounder in the country and has five all-around titles this season. She set a personal-best with a 39.550 earlier this season at Utah, and has matched or set new personal-bests on all four individual events this season. Goings has also excelled in the all-around this season, with three all-around titles and No. 47 ranking. Northey and Goings were both named to the All-Pac-12 First Team in the all-around.
Last Time Out
The GymDawgs finished in seventh place at the Pac-12 Championships, but junior captain Kailtyn Duranczyk won the bars title to become the Pac-12 Bars Champion. The GymDawgs posted 49.000 or higher on three of four events, but struggled on beam on their way to a 195.300.
Notes:
- All-Pac-12 Selections: Allison Northey and Joslyn Goings were each named to the All-Pac-12 First Team in the all-around, while Kaitlyn Duranczyk earned All-Pac-12 Second Team on bars.
- Allison Northey was also named a Second Team All-American by the NACGC/W in the all-around as the nation's No. 15-ranked all-arounder.
- The GymDawgs have just one senior on the 2016 squad, two-time All-Pac-12 First Team all-arounder Allison Northey. Fellow senior Sheridan Metcalf is serving as a student coach for the GymDawgs this season.
- UW's freshman class consists of three gymnasts: Malory Rose (Orlando, Fla.), Kristyn Hoffa (San Marcos, Calif.) and Monica Riley (Irving, Texas).
- UW head coach Joanne Bowers is in her 10th season with the Huskies.
- The Huskies added assistant coach Stephen Buckner, who was previously serving as the strength and conditioning coach at the University of Alabama. He helped the Crimson Tide to back-to-back national championships in 2011 and 2012 when he was on the staff. Former assistant coach Elise Ray was promoted to associate head coach. The addition of Buckner and promotion of Ray followed the departure of former UW associate head coach David McCreary, who is now an assistant at the University of Arizona.
- The Huskies took seventh place at the 2015 Pac-12 Championships with a 196.000, their highest score at the conference championships in the last four years. UW gymnastics team-high in 2015 was 196.600, recorded at UC Davis.
Follow UW Gymnastics on Social Media
Facebook · Instagram · Twitter
UW_Gymnastics on Snapchat
