Arkansas Gymnastics Fact Sheet #12

No. 12 Gym’Backs host second quad The 12th-ranked University of Arkansas Gym’Backs host their final home meet of the 2007 season with the second quad of the year. Arkansas welcomes No. 18 Missouri, No. 36 Southeast Missouri and No. 51 Texas Woman’s University to the four-way Friday in Barnhill Arena. Arkansas will provide live stats and a live video feed of the event.A
chance to improve the home record Arkansas is 19-25 all-time at home but the Gym’Backs gain the advantage with a 15-10 non-conference home record. Arkansas is 3-3 against non-SEC teams in Barnhill this year and 0-5 against league teams (0-8 total).
Quad meets have been good The Gym’Backs are 14-4 all-time in quad meets throughout the five years of the program. Arkansas is 10-2 in home quads and 4-2 in road four-team meets.
How it works Arkansas is the home team and will compete in Olympic order (vault, bars, beam and floor) for this meet. Missouri follows and competes bars, beam, floor, vault. TWU is next going beam, floor, vault, bars and SEMO starts on floor, moving to vault, bars and beam.
About No. 18 Missouri With a season-best score, the No. 18 Missouri gymnastics team upset No. 11 Michigan 196.675-196.100 on Friday night in Ann Arbor, Mich. Sophomore Adrianne Perry claimed the all-around crown with a career-high 39.550 and won or tied for the vault and floor titles. Missouri is 11-6 overall with losses to Auburn, BYU and Nebraska – all common opponents of Arkansas. Missouri has defeated SEMO once already this season.
Series Record Arkansas is 1-4 all-time against Missouri. The Gym’Backs only win came in the first meeting in 2003 – a quad meet hosting by Auburn.
About No. 36 Southeast Missouri State The RedHawks enter the meet with a 15-4 overall record paced by all-arounders Tara Boldt and Ashley Godwin. SEMO’s highest score of the year is a 194.275. SEMO and Texas Woman’s University have meet twice this year splitting with SEMO winning the first meeting.
Series Record Arkansas is 2-0 against Southeast Missouri State with both meets in Fayetteville. The most recent meeting came last year at the NCAA Regional.
About No. 51 Texas Woman’s University TWU enters the week with a 9-11 overall record but has faced several of the top teams this year. They have a pair of losses to BYU and Kentucky and have fallen to Penn State and split with SEMO – all teams Arkansas has faced this year.
Series Record Arkansas is 2-0 against TWU dowing the Pioneers in Fayetteville and in Lexington, Ky.
Recapping Arizona State Freshman Casey Jo Magee tied the Arkansas school record on balance beam as the No. 12 Gym’Backs set a school record on the event in a non-conference road win at No. 23 Arizona State Friday. Arkansas won the meet, 196.175-195.125 scoring a 49.40 on the beam. Arkansas’ 49.400 on the beam was a school record while five individuals posted season or career bests. Samantha Cortez tied her career-best with a 9.875 on floor, Magee tied the school record and set a career-best on beam with a 9.95 and set a season/career best with a 9.875 on bars. Junior Emily Peacock posted a career-best 9.90 on beam and senior Rachel Barnett had a season-high 9.875 on floor in the win.
Arkansas remains 12th in the poll The Gym’Backs had a very successful meet at No. 23 Arizona State scoring a 196.175 despite counting a fall. As a result, Arkansas remained at No. 12 in this week’s poll. It is the second consecutive week at No. 12 and the third overall this season. Arkansas was ranked No. 11 during week eight and that was the highest ranking of the 2007 season.
Individuals in the polls Arkansas has one individual ranked in the top 25 again this week. Casey Jo Magee is tied for 11th on the balance beam with a 9.870 RQS, a 9.839 average and a 9.950 high score.
About This 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.
SEC season over – kind of Arkansas wrapped up the SEC regular season Friday with a win at Auburn. Arkansas finishes the regular season with a 2-4 league mark for the fourth consecutive season (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007). Arkansas also won its last two SEC meets in 2006 (Auburn and Kentucky). The Gym’Backs lost their last four meets of the year in both 2004 and 2005 after winning their opening meets (Auburn and Kentucky). Arkansas was 1-5 in the SEC in 2003 and now has a 9-21 record against the conference in five seasons. The Gym’Backs get another crack at everyone in the league at the SEC Championship in North Little Rock, Ark., March 31.
Success On The Road Arkansas posted a 196.350 at No. 14 Auburn marking the best road score in program history. The road has been good to Arkansas this year as the Gym’Backs also scored well at Kentucky with a 195.850 – a mark that ranks fourth all-time. See the box on the previous page for the top road scores in school history. In addition, Arkansas’ 2007 road record is 6-2 this year with wins at Penn State, at Kentucky, at Auburn, at Arizona State and against BYU and SUU. The losses are to LSU and Utah.
SEC Looks Good In The Poll The Southeastern Conference continues to be one of the toughest conferences for gymnastics in the country. All seven SEC members are ranked in the top 25 but there was a bit of a shake up on the top this week. Georgia stole the top spot in the poll from Florida in week 9 but the Gators are back on top in week 10 followed by No. 2 Georgia, No. 3 Alabama, No. 6 LSU, No. 12 Arkansas, No. 15 Auburn and No. 25 Kentucky. All seven programs are ranked in the top 25 on all four events again this week.
Arkansas Third In The Region After four weeks in the No. 4 spot in the South Central Region, Arkansas moved up a spot to the No. 3 position in week 7 where they remain. The Gym’Backs moved ahead of Arizona and trail Nebraska and Oklahoma. Arkansas faced, and lost, to Nebraska at the Super Six Challenge but has not faced Oklahoma this season. The Gym’Backs host Missouri, Southeast Missouri and Texas Woman’s University, all of whom are also ranked, this week in Barnhill Arena.
Youth dominates lineupArkansas has a young lineup. There are 24 performances in a meet and that number changes if you factor in the all-around competition. Last week against Arizona State, Arkansas had 25 performances – six each on vault, bars, beam and floor and one all-arounder. The Gym’Backs had 14 of those performances filled with freshmen and sophomores. Arkansas competed three freshmen and a sophomore on vault, four freshmen on bars, two freshmen on beam, two freshmen and one sophomore on floor and one freshman in the all-around.
You Always Win The fledgling gymnastics program that is the Gym’Backs has performed well in several meets throughout the first four-plus years of existence – but that hasn’t always translated into wins (individual or for the team). However, the Gym’Backs do have their fair share of individual titles. Here’s a quick look at some of the win totals. With a pair of individual wins at Kentucky, junior Emily Peacock has 13 victories – the most ever in the history of the program.
More TV pleaseNo problem. Nine of Arkansas 13 regular-season meets are slated for television. In addition to ESPN2 televising the Super Six Challenge, Arkansas will be on FSN at Kentucky and at the SEC Championship. The Gym’Backs get some camera time from COX when they host Georgia and at LSU and KFTA is airing Arkansas’ home meets with Florida and Alabama.
2007 Opponents Doing Well In 2007 All of Arkansas’ 2007 opponents are ranked in the top 50 this week. Georgia took over the top spot stealing it from Florida this week. The Gators are second followed by No. 3 Alabama, No. 5 Nebraska, No. 7 Utah, No. 8 LSU, No. 13 Auburn, No. 16 Penn State, No. 17 Denver, No. 18 Missouri, No. 21 West Virginia, No. 22 BYU, No. 23 Arizona state, No. 29 Kentucky, No. 31 Utah State, No. No. 34 SUU, No. 37 UMH, No. 38 Pittsburgh, No. 29 SEMO and No. 50 TWU.
ALLTEL Arena hosts SEC ChampionshipNorth Little Rock’s ALLTEL Arena plays host to this year’s Southeastern Conference Gymnastics Championship. The 2007 Championship at ALLTEL marks the 10th venue to host the league’s teams. Arkansas first competed at the SEC Championship in 2003 when Birmingham hosted the event. The championship moved to Duluth, Ga., in 2004 and 2005 when teams competed in a multi-purpose facility that actually had ice from the previous week’s hockey game under the floor.The SEC Championship returned to Birmingham in 2006 with the new civic center hosting the event. For the first time in league history, the championship was competed on a platform with all of the events raised up off the floor in a set-up that more closely mirrored the national championship.This year, the league championship moves to North Little Rock, Ark., and the platform is again going to be used. The North Little Rock venue has seen its share of high profile Southeastern Conference events having hosted the SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament twice, first in 2003, and again in 2006. Ironically, the SEC Women’s Basketball Championship moves to Duluth, Ga., and the Gwinnett Center – the site of the 2004 and 2005 gymnastics championships.
Up Next The Gym’Backs travel down the road to ALLTEL Arena for the 2007 SEC Championship (see note above).
Upcoming NCAA Regional InformationSelection Information — Monday, April 2, 2 p.m. ET Central Regional April 14 — Coleman Coliseum — Tuscaloosa, Ala.Host: University of Alabama North Central Regional April 14, — Magness Arena — Denver, Colo.Host: University of Denver Northeast Regional April 14 — Crisler Arena — Ann Arbor, Mich.Host: University of Michigan South Central Regional April 14 — McKale Memorial Center — Tucson, Ariz.Host: University of Arizona Southeast Regional April 14 — West Virginia Univ. Col. — Morgantown, W.V.Host:West Virginia UniversityWest Regional April 14 — Haas Pavilion — Berkeley, Calif.Host: University of California, BerkeleyChampionships April 26 to 28, — Jon M. Huntsman Center — Salt Lake City, UtahHost: University of Utah