University of North Carolina Athletics
Gymnastics Qualifies For Postseason Competition For Third Straight Year
March 22, 2004 | Women's Gymnastics
March 22, 2004
INDIANAPOLIS - The No. 12 North Carolina gymanstics team will travel to Raleigh, N.C., for the third time this season to compete in the 2004 Southeast Regional Championships, the NCAA announced Monday. The meet will be held Sat., April 3, at Reynold's Coliseum on the campus of NC State.
The Tar Heels will face off against the top seed in the country (UCLA), No. 13 Nebraska and three rival East Atlantic Gymnastics League (EAGL) teams: West Virginia, NC State and Maryland. According to GymInfo's end-of-season rankings, West Virginia and NC State stand at 21 and 22, respectively.
"This has got to be the hardest of the six regionals," head coach Derek Galvin said. "But we can take them.
"The key to our ultimate success in this competition is going to be the vocal support of our fans and spectators. We want them out there cheering for us."
The top two teams from each of six regionals will advance to the NCAA National Championships in Los Angeles, Calif., April 15-17. The top two all-arounders who are not on a qualifying team will also advance. Event winners will qualify on that event only as long as they are not an all-around qualifier or part of an advancing team.
Sophomore Courtney Bumpers and senior Anna Wilson went to the 2003 nationals as individual all-arounders, but this year Carolina hopes to qualify as a team for the first time in school history.
The Tar Heels finished third at the 2003 Southeast Regional, coming up .05 shy of the University of Florida and a national bid.
Other regionals will be held at Oregon State University (West), the University of Denver (North Central), the University of Arizona (South Central), Louisiana State University (Central) and Pennsylvania State University (Northeast).
The Tar Heels are coming off a second place finish at the EAGL Championships at the University of Pittsburgh on March 20. West Virginia ousted the Tar Heels, the top-ranked team in the conference 197.05-196.725.
The performance did not daunt Galvin, however. The score was still one of Carolina's top six of the season, and the team had to count a fall on balance beam. Galvin said the team is focused on eliminating any falls at regionals.
Carolina has less than two weeks to prepare for the April 3 regionals at NC State. The meet will begin at 6 p.m. at Reynold's Coliseum.
Players Mentioned
