Arkansas Gymnastics Fact Sheet #10

2008 GYMNASTICS FACT SHEET #10 — No. 9 OklahomaArkansas hosts No. 9 Oklahoma The 11th-ranked Arkansas gymnastics team returns home hosting back-to-back home meets to close the regular season. Arkansas hosts No. 9 Oklahoma for the first time in program history followed by No. 14 Michigan State March 21 – also for the first time.
Arkansas moves to No. 11 The Gym’Backs jumped up one spot to No. 11 in this week’s GymInfo poll. Arkansas had been holding steady at the No. 10 spot but moved one place after the poll went to RQS (from average) a couple weeks ago. Arkansas has been as high as No. 10 in the poll this year.
11th in the nation but sixth in the SEC That’s right. Arkansas is 11th in the nation and fifth in the SEC facing what is again the best teams in the country in their own conference. This week Georgia holds the top spot for the seventh consecutive week. Florida remains third, followed by No. 5 LSU, No. 6 Alabama, No. 11 Arkansas, No. 12 Auburn and No. 23 Kentucky.
To RQS or not to RQS? Qualification for regional competition is based on a team’s and an all-around competitor’s six best regular-season-meet scores, of which three must be away. To obtain the regional qualifying score (RQS), the high score is eliminated and the remaining five scores are averaged.
Arkansas wins UCLA Quad Arkansas put together a solid meet on the road at UCLA and came away with a quad meet victory. The Gym’Backs tied their season best with a 196.425 and would have been happy with the score. But mistakes down the stretch by both No. 6 Alabama and No. 8 UCLA saw Arkansas capture the quad meet title. Bama struggled on their opening event, the beam, counting a fall and counted another on the final event, the bars. UCLA also faced demons on the beam counting a fall and had one gymnast step out on the floor with a second unable to finish after an injury. Arkansas, meanwhile, did not count a fall for the meet.
Cortez hits 9.90 twice Senior Samantha Cortez scored a 9.90 on both the vault and floor exercise to lead Arkansas. That tied her career-best on the vault and is her top collegiate score on the floor.
About Oklahoma Oklahoma is having a great season. The Sooners are undefeated and are coming off a 24-for-24 performance and season-best 196.750 against then-No. 11 Auburn last week. OU is 16-0 on the year and went one-two in the all-around with Kiara Redmond-Sturms winning her eighth title in 10 events. This will be the first time these teams have meet during the regular season and the first meeting between them since second-year coach K.J. Kindler (formerly of Iowa State) has been at the helm.
Arkansas vs. Oklahoma Arkansas and OU have met twice before with both meetings occurring in the postseason. The first meeting came at the NCAA Regional in 2005 and again in 2006 at the NCAA Championship. Oklahoma finished better than the Gym’Backs in both meets. This is the first regular season meeting between these teams. This is the first meeting between Arkansas and another South Central Region team this year.
The South Central Rankings The Gym’Backs remain in second place in the South Central Regional standings. Number 9 Oklahoma leads the SC, followed by Arkansas. Nebraska is third followed by Missouri and Arizona rounding out the top five in the region. Here’s the complete regional standings:

Arkansas-OU individuals close in the regional rankings Arkansas and Oklahoma are very close in the regional rankings. Separated by only one place for each event, the individuals are equally as close. On the vault, Oklahoma’s Kiara Redmond-Sturms ranks second and Mary Mantle is tied for eighth. Arkansas’ Michelle Stout is fifth and Casey Jo Magee is 12th. On bars, Sturms is second, Hollie Vise is eighth and Ashley Jackson is 12th. Emily Peacock leads Arkansas and is seventh on bars. Magee is ninth and Stout is 13th overall. On beam, Haley DeProspero ranks first followed by Vise and Sturms are tied for sixth with Stephanie LoPiccolo 11th overall. Magee ranks second for Arkansas on the beam. Sturms ranks first on floor this week, followed by Ashley Jackson who is tied for fourth with teammate Jacqueline Flanery. OU’s Jessica Kinder is tied for 11th. For Arkansas it’s Peacock who is third followed by No. 13 Magee and Samantha Cortez and Alex LaChance are tied for 14th overall.

Arkansas-OU common opponents Arkansas and Oklahoma have faced a couple of common opponents this year with very similar results. Both teams have faced West Virginia and Auburn and both Arkansas and Oklahoma have outscored those foes. OU faced WVU twice and is most recently coming off a win over Auburn while Arkansas opened at Michigan with West Virginia and edged Auburn at home earlier this season.
Gym’Backs live on the web All of the 2008 home meets will be streamed live at LADYBACKS.COM. Click on “All Access” and sign up today. Non-subscribers can view live scores on the web as well.
What’s coming up? The Gym’Backs host No. 9 Oklahoma (March 15) and No. 14 Michigan State (March 21) as the regular season concludes.
The 2008 SEC Championship returns to Georgia The state of Georgia is going to be busy this year. The SEC Championship returns to the Gwinett Center in Duluth for the third time since 2003. In addition, the University of Georgia will host the 2008 NCAA Championship behind the three-time defending national champion Georgia Gym Dogs.
NCAA Regionals follow April 12 Nothing is ever a given in sport but if the season ended today, the 10th-ranked Gym’Backs would earn the program’s fifth consecutive trip in six seasons to the NCAA Regional Championship. The NCAA regional selection is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. eastern/4:00 p.m. central Monday March 31. This year’s regionals are as follows:

2009 is approaching Yes, the 2008 season is just starting but the Gym’Backs can look forward to 2009 as well. Arkansas has been selected to host the 2009 NCAA South Central Regional Championship April 4, in Barnhill Arena. It is the second NCAA Regional Arkansas has hosted. The Gym’Backs also hosted the 2006 South Central Regional upsetting UCLA to finish second overall and advance to the program’s first NCAA Championship. The other hosts include Ohio State (Central), Iowa (North Central), TBA (Northeast), North Carolina State (Southeast), Washington (West) and Nebraska (Championship).