University of North Carolina Athletics
Gymnastics Hits Road For Regional Championships
April 7, 2005 | Women's Gymnastics
April 7, 2005
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SETTING THE SCENE:
The North Carolina gymnastics team travels to the University of Florida Saturday for its fourth consecutive appearance in the NCAA Southeast Regional Championship. Florida is hosting its 10th regional in 24 years.
Carolina heads into the meet after winning its second East Atlantic Gymnastics League Championship on March 25. The Tar Heel s will face EAGL opponents West Virginia and NC State at regionals in addition to Southeast Region teams Georgia and Florida and Denver from the North Central Region.
The Southeast regional features four teams ranked in the nation's Top 25: No. 5 Georgia, No. 7 Florida, No. 17 Denver and No. 25 Carolina.
Six regionals will take place across the country Saturday, and the top two teams from each one will advance to the National Championships in Auburn, Ala., April 21-23. Carolina is looking for its first-ever national bid.
TAR HEELS IN PAST REGIONALS:
Over the past two years, Carolina has inched painfully close to the school's first berth to the NCAA National Championships. In 2003, the Tar Heels qualified for regionals at the University of Georgia as the fifth seed, and upset Maryland and Ohio State, only to be edged by second-seeded Florida by .05 points (194.95-194.90). Last year, Carolina came even closer, when the team finished third behind second-place Nebraska, 196.375-196.35, a margin of .025 points.
Junior Courtney Bumpers has advanced from regionals to nationals both years, however. In 2003, Bumpers went on to finish fourth in the individual balance beam finals; and in 2004, she earned a share of the floor exercise title after winning floor exercise at regionals and placing third all-around.
This year's team is the 11th that head coach Derek Galvin has taken to an NCAA regional meet. Having qualified for the fourth year in a row, Carolina's gymnasts are on their second-longest streak in school history. Carolina was represented each year at a regional meet from 1982-1986 (five years). In the years that the Tar Heels have not appeared at regionals as a team, they have been represented by individual qualifiers.
2005 Season:
Carolina had its best start to a season in school history, as it went 13-0 in the first five meets. The Tar Heels topped six other teams in their first meet at the George Washington Invitational and tallied a season-high 195.85 in the fifth meet of the season and the second in Chapel Hill on Feb. 19.
In the following meet, Carolina competed in its second of three nail-biters against NC State at the Wolfpack's home gym. The two teams tied for the first time in either program's history with a 194.475. In its other two competitions against the in-state rival, Carolina defeated the Wolfpack by two-tenths of a point at the 10th annual Governor's Cup in Chapel Hill and lost by 0.475 points on Feb. 27, also in Chapel Hill, two days after the tie.
The Tar Heels battled in six meets where they finished within a point of their closest competitor, and five of the close calls came against an EAGL opponent. Aside from the three meets against NC State, Carolina edged West Virginia, 192.20-192.10, on Jan. 29, and Maryland, 193.15-192.475, on March 5, but finished behind Iowa on March 12, 194.325-194.225, giving the Tar Heels a record of 3-2-1 in such competitions.
NC State's win at Carolina on Feb. 27 snapped Carolina's undefeated streak and was the Tar Heels' first home loss since they placed fifth at the 2001 EAGL Championship held at the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill, and their first loss at Carmichael Auditorium since March 3, 2000, when Towson defeated Carolina by 0.475 points. This year's seniors will end their careers with a home record of 22-1.
THE LAST TIME OUT: EAGL CHAMPIONSHIP
Carolina won its second East Atlantic Gymnastics League title in the 10-year history of the conference Fri., March 25, at NC State. The Tar Heels' 195.975 was the highest total the team has had this year and was enough to defeat Maryland and West Virginia, who tied for second with a 195.200. Host NC State, who went into the meet ranked as the top team in the EAGL, placed fourth with a 194.975.
Courtney Bumpers tied an EAGL record for titles won in an EAGL Championship with top finishes on uneven bars, floor exercise and all-around. Bumpers tied the same record in the 2004 EAGL Championship and is the only gymnast in the history of the EAGL to win three titles at the meet in two different years. Bumpers' 9.95 on floor exercise and 39.475 in the all-around were team-highs for the Tar Heels this season.
Carolina had fairly consistent performances on every event, tallying a 49.025 on uneven bars, a 48.975 on balance beam, a 49.10 on floor exercise and a 48.875 on vault. The bars and beam scores were the second-highest of the season.
EAGL WEEKLY Honors:
Senior Olivia Trusty, junior Courtney Bumpers and sophomore Christine Robella led the team all season, with each earning at least one EAGL Gymnast of the Week selection. Bumpers was honored on Feb. 2 after leading the Tar Heels in their close win over West Virginia. It was the first time that a Carolina gymnastics team has beaten the Mountaineers in West Virginia, and Bumpers achieved a season-high all-around score of 39.20 after leading her team on every event.
Trusty was named Gymnast of the Week three weeks later after leading Carolina to its season-best 195.85 over Rutgers and William & Mary. For the first time in her career she won or finished in a tie for first place on every event, and her 39.425 in the all-around and 9.90 on uneven bars tied for the highest EAGL scores in those areas this season.
Robella notched EAGL honors twice during the 2005 season. She was a co-Gymnast of the Week on March 2 after Carolina's weekend of dual meets against NC State. She led the Tar Heels in both meets, earning her first all-around title for 2005 in the home meet on Feb. 27 with a score of 39.325, the third-highest EAGL all-around total this year. Robella was also the final 2005 Gymnast of the Week after leading Carolina for the fourth time this season in a loss to fourth-ranked Alabama on March 18. Robella placed second in the all-around but earned her second-highest 2005 total, a 39.20.
Senior Elisabeth Alsop earned her first EAGL honor as the Specialist of the Week on Jan. 26. Alsop aided the Tar Heels in a victory at William & Mary on Jan. 21 by placing in the top three on uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise. She won the uneven bars to capture her first career event win. Alsop was Carolina's first Specialist of the Week since Natalie Halbach was honored in March 2003.
TAR HEEL ACADEMIC SUCCESS:
Carolina gymnasts have historically excelled in the classroom, and this year was no exception. Senior Olivia Trusty was named the recipient of a prestigious Weaver-James-Corrigan postgraduate scholarship by the Atlantic Coast Conference in February. Trusty is a four-time member of the EAGL All-Academic Team and has been an NACGC/W Academic All-America for the past two years. The Baltimore, Md., native will graduate in May with a degree in Political Science and is looking at graduate schools in the Washington, D.C., area, where she hopes to work after school.
Senior Amy Williams was the recipient of the 2005 Scholar-Athlete Award as the third Carolina gymnast in the 10-year history of the EAGL to be so honored. A selection to the EAGL All-Academic Team and the NACGC/W All-America team every year during her career, Williams was inducted into the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa Society in the fall of 2004 and was an academic team captain for Carolina the last two seasons. She will graduate from UNC in May with a degree in biology and a minor in chemistry and will attend medical school at the University of Pennsylvania next year.
Senior Elisabeth Alsop was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa on Tuesday. Alsop has also been on the EAGL Academic Team and NACGC/W Academic All-America every year at Carolina and is planning to go to graduate school next year to get a Master's in Teaching for teaching English as a Second Language (ESL).
All 16 members of the North Carolina gymnastics team were named to the 2005 EAGL All-Academic Team, comprising the highest number of Carolina gymnasts ever selected. A record 95 gymnasts in the EAGL made the team. Carolina is the only team in EAGL history to have 100 percent of its members honored.
Seniors Alsop, Olivia Trusty and Williams made up a fourth of EAGL gymnasts honored for the fourth time in their careers, while Morgan Stanley received the honor for the first time. All three juniors were three-time selections, and all five sophomores were two-time selections.
HEAD COACH Derek Galvin:
Derek Galvin is coaching his 24th gymnastics team at Carolina. Over the past three years, he has coached some of his most successful teams in school history to 58 wins, nine losses and a tie in regular season competition for a .86 winning average. He surpassed his 250th win in 2004, and now has 270 regular season victories under his belt.
Galvin's 2003 and 2004 teams came the closest any Carolina gymnastics team has ever come to qualifying for the NCAA Championships. The 2003 squad missed the required second-place finish at the NCAA Southeast Regional by .05 points, while the 2004 group came within .025 points.
Galvin coached current team member Courtney Bumpers to a national title on floor exercise in 2004. Bumpers is the first EAGL gymnast ever to win a national title and the first Carolina gymnast to earn All-America status, which she did in 2003 and 2004.
This is the 11th time in school history that Galvin has guided a team to the NCAA regional meet and the fourth consecutive year. Galvin's teams have been represented every year by at least one individual.
Galvin has a history of coaching athletes who excel in academics as well as in gymnastics, and in 18 years, 75 gymnasts coached by Galvin have been chosen for the NACGC/W Scholastic All-America Gymnastics Team. This season, a school record 16 gymnasts were named to the EAGL All-Academic Team.
Players Mentioned
