(Photo: Brady Klain/WCSN)
The No. 21 Gym Devils are headed to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Friday, April 5, to compete in the second session of the NCAA Regionals Championship where they will be joined by the host team, No. 3 Louisiana State, No. 13 Auburn as well as the winner of the first round play-in meet between No. 35 George Washington and No. 36 Lindenwood. The first session of the Baton Rouge Regional will feature No. 6 Utah, No. 11 Minnesota, No. 17 BYU, as well as No. 20 Arkansas.
With the new postseason format set for 2019, the top two teams from each session will advance to Saturday’s super regional, where the top two teams will punch their tickets to the national championships in Fort Worth, Texas.
This is the second year, Head Coach Jay Santos and assistant coach Jess Santos have led the Gym Devils to postseason play. After being ranked in the top-25 all season long, the Gym Devils finished with a winning regular season record of 11-10 for the first time since 2014. On an event-by-event basis, the Gym Devils finished the season ranked No. 19 on the vault, No. 20 on the uneven bars, No. 22 on the balance beam, and No. 23 on the floor.
The Gym Devils may have had a slow start to their season, but they have recently caught fire to upset Washington and win session one of the Pac-12 championship with a 196.400 and a strong fifth-place finish overall.
Following the PAC-12 Conference Championship, sophomore Cairo-Leonard Baker was named to the All-PAC-12 First Team in the all-around and the uneven bars as well as a Regular Season All-American on the uneven bars. Senior Anne Kuhm added some awards of her own after being named PAC-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year as well as being named to the All-PAC-12 Second Team in the all-around.
As for each event, Morgan Wilson has led the Gym Devils all-season long on the vault with a season-high of 9.900. Other key vaulters include Kaitlyn Szafranski and Jessica Ginn who tied their career-highs of 9.850 at the PAC-12 Championships as well as Corinne Belkoff who scored a career-high of her own with a 9.825.
On the uneven bars, Leonard-Baker leads the Gym Devils ranked No. 11 in the country with a season-high of 9.975 and most-recently a 9.950 to earn a second-place finish at the PAC-12 Championships. Morgan Hart also reached a new career-high at the PAC-12 Championships posting a 9.900.
On the balance beam, the Gym Devils have struggled to find consistency on the event. However, Justine Callis has been a strong and consistent performer for the Gym Devils going 9.875+ five times this season with a season and career-high of 9.925.
On the floor, Leonard-Baker’s crowd-favorite routine has led the Gym Devils all-season long, hitting her season-high of 9.950 twice and going 9.900 or higher six times this season. Belkoff has also seen recent success earning a 9.900 in three out of her last four meets.
While this is a regional championship, it will also be a homecoming for Szafranski who began her NCAA gymnastics career at LSU before transferring to ASU during her junior year.
“I’m so excited to go back to LSU because all the girls that I started out with are now seniors on the team,” Szafranski said. “So it’s pretty cool to be able to start my career with them and then make it all the way back around and compete with them one last time.”
Looking at each opponent, LSU is the top-ranked team in this regional and will have its home crowd to its advantage. The Tigers are one of the hottest teams in collegiate gymnastics right now, surpassing a 198.000 team score in two of their last three meets, and are coming off a big win at the SEC Championship where they posted a huge 197.900. They come in with a Regional Qualifying Score (RQS) of 197.810 and are ranked fourth in all four events.
On the vault, 2017 NCAA Individual Vault Champion, Kennedi Edney leads the Tigers with a season-high of a perfect 10.00, but Sarah Finnegan, Ruby Harrold, and Sarah Edwards have also seen near-perfection with season-highs of 9.950.
On the uneven bars, the senior star duo of Finnegan and Lexie Priessman have been the one-two punch at the back end of the Tigers’ lineup, both posting season-highs of 10.00.
On the balance beam, the Tigers have relied on Finnegan yet again who has consistently posted nine scores of 9.900 or higher with her season-high of a 10.00.
On the floor exercise, LSU will rely on McKenna Kelley who has returned to the floor lineup after missing the entire 2018 season due to a torn achilles. Kelley along with Finnegan and Edney have all posted season-highs of 10.00 on the event, with Finnegan posting hers at the SEC Championship last weekend to win the event.
For the Auburn Tigers, they come into the Baton Rouge Regional with an RQS of 196.695. Earlier this season, Auburn was able to defeat LSU, 196.700-196.275 and have relied on the all-around duo of Drew Watson and Derrian Gobourne.
On the vault, Auburn has had four gymnasts reach season-highs of 9.90+ with Watson receiving a season-high of 9.950 for her yurchenko 1.5.
On the uneven bars, Auburn is ranked No. 8 in the country with six gymnasts going 9.900+ this season. Gracie Day’s season-high of came earlier this season against Arkansas where she posted a near-perfect 9.9750.
On the balance beam, Abby Milliet and Allie Riddle lead the Tigers with season-highs of 9.950. Both Milliet and Riddle earned their season-highs against SEC and state rival, Alabama.
On the floor exercise, Derrian Gobourne’s, fun and powerful routine have led the Tigers all season long scoring 9.900+ four times this season and reaching her season-high of 9.950 twice. Milliet, Day, and Watson are also strong performers on the floor for Auburn going 9.900 or higher multiple times this season.
As for George Washington and Lindenwood, this should be a close meet as both teams came in with just 0.050 separating them in their RQS’s. This will be Lindenwood’s first ever regionals berth since becoming a program in 2013 and the first Division II program to make regionals since Bridgeport in 2013.
The Gym Devils faced George Washington earlier this year at the Perfect 10 Challenge where they defeated the Colonials 195.6500-194.975.
One key gymnast for George Washington is Alexandra Zois who is a strong performer for the Colonials on beam and floor. Her teammate Hannah Cohen is also a strong competitor on the balance beam and she’s an individual qualifier for George Washington if the Colonials don’t advance to the first round of the regional championships.
Lindenwood’s Andavea Alexander has been a key performer for the Lions on the balance beam and floor, with a season-high of 9.875 as well as Ryan Henry who scored a 9.875 on the floor.
The meet is slated to begin at 5 p.m. MST in the PMAC and will be televised live on the SEC Network+.
