UCLA Women's Gymnastics NCAA Championships Press Release • Apr. 21, 2008 UCLA Sports Information • PO Box 24044 • Los Angeles, CA 90024-0044 SID Contact: Liza David • Phone: 310/206-8140 • Fax: 310/825-8664 • Email: [email protected] Website: www.uclabruins.com UCLA To Compete At NCAA Gymnastics Championships Apr. 24-26 No. 9 seed Bruins return to Athens, GA in pursuit of sixth national title. UCLA At The NCAA Championships — Ninth-seeded UCLA will compete for a sixth national title at the 2008 UCLA Schedule (18-6) NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships on Apr. 24-26 in Athens, Ga. The Bruins begin competition on Date Opponent Time/Result Thursday, Apr. 24 at 7:00 pm ET in the evening team preliminary session at Stegeman Coliseum. Battling with UCLA for three spots in the NCAA Super Six Team Finals will be Georgia, Stanford, Utah, Michigan Lady Luck Invitational - Las Vegas, NV and Denver. Competing in the afternoon session (1:00 pm ET) are Florida, LSU, Alabama, Oregon State, 1/4 vs. ASU, OSU 1st, 194.975 Oklahoma and Arkansas. 1/13 MEET THE BRUINS Exhibition Championship Schedule — The competition begins on Thursday with two preliminary sessions at 1:00 pm 1/20 at Cal State Fullerton 1st, 196.125 and 7:00 pm. The top three teams from each session will advance to the Super Six Team Finals on Friday w/ Brown, Wisconsin-Eau Claire at 6:00 pm. Individual event fi nals will take place on Saturday at 6:00 pm. The all-around champion and 1/27 STANFORD W 195.050-195.025 individual event fi nalists will be determined during Thursday's preliminaries. Individuals qualify for event fi - 2/1 at Washington W 195.975-194.425 nals by placing in the Top 4 (including ties) of that particular event during their own preliminary session. IGI Chicago Style Meet - Chicago, IL Live Coverage — Live scoring for all sessions will be available at georgiadogs.com. Streaming video from 2/8 vs. Illinois, Stanford, Wash. 1st, 196.875 Thursday's preliminaries and Saturday's event fi nals will also be available. The meet will be televised by CBS on May 10 from 12-2 pm. 2/17 at California W 195.225-189.425 2/22 at Arizona W 196.575-196.050 Competition Order — The Bruins will begin the meet on uneven bars and then will move to beam, a bye, 2/24 UTAH L 195.825-197.450 fl oor exercise, then vault. UCLA ends the meet on a bye. This is the same rotation order UCLA had at the 3/2 OREGON ST. W 196.775-195.950 Regional meet. 3/9 ALABAMA, ARKANSAS, 3rd, 195.800 CAL STATE FULLERTON Session 1 3/15 at Georgia L 196.925-197.9 Rot. V Bye UB BB Bye FX 3/29 at Pac-10 Championships 3rd, 196.2 1 OKLA FL ARK ALA LSU OSU 4/12 at NCAA Regionals 2nd, 196.625 2 OSU OKLA FL ARK ALA LSU NCAA Championships - Athens, GA 3 LSU OSU OKLA FL ARK ALA 4/24 NCAA Prelims 7:00 pm ET 4 ALA LSU OSU OKLA FL ARK 4/25 NCAA Super Six 6:00 pm ET 5 ARK ALA LSU OSU OKLA FL 4/26 NCAA Event Finals 6:00 pm ET 6 LSU ARK ALA LSU OSU OKLA Home meets are in BOLD CAPS and held in Pauley Session 2 Pavilion. All times are local to site. Rot. V Bye UB BB Bye FX 1 DEN UTAH UCLA UGA MICH STAN National Rankings (Top 25) 2 STAN DEN UTAH UCLA UGA MICH Gymnast V UB BB FX AA 3 MICH STAN DEN UTAH UCLA UGA Li – 2nd – – 14th-T 4 UGA MICH STAN DEN UTAH UCLA McCullough 16th-T – – – – 5 UCLA UGA MICH STAN DEN UTAH J. Schwikert – – – – 24th-T 6 UTAH UCLA UGA MICH STAN DEN T. Schwikert 8th-T 3rd-T – – – Team 6th 2nd 10th 16th-T 9th Bruins Face Challenge In Evening Session — Only three spots in the Super Six are available in each ses- sion, and the Bruins will have to battle it out against four of the Top 6 teams in the fi nal regular season 2008 Honors rankings. Georgia fi nished No. 1, Utah No. 2, Michigan No. 5 and Stanford No. 6, while UCLA fi nished No. 9 and Denver No. 13. Four of the six evening session teams qualifi ed for last year's Super Six, with Georgia Ariana Berlin winning the title, Utah placing second, UCLA fourth and Stanford fi fth. 1st-team All-Pac-10 (all-around) 2nd-team Pac-10 All-Academic UCLA's NCAA Championship History — The Bruins have won fi ve NCAA gymnastics titles, including four Marci Bernholtz this decade. UCLA's titles were won in 1997 at Florida, 2000 at Boise State, 2001 at Georgia, 2003 at Pac-10 Event Specialist of the Week (Jan. 15-21) Nebraska and 2004 at UCLA. This is UCLA's 24th overall appearance in the 27 NCAA Championships. Kristina Comforte 2nd-team Pac-10 All-Academic The Bruins have advanced to the Super Six every year they have qualifi ed for the Championships in its Anna Li current format. 1st-team All-Pac-10 (all-around) UCLA and Georgia have combined to win 10 of the last 11 NCAA titles. Pac-10 Gymnast of the Week (Jan. 8-14) UCLA/Muscle Milk Student-Athlete of the Week (Feb. 11-18) Individual NCAA History — A total of 13 Bruins have won 26 NCAA titles to rank second behind only Georgia Brittani McCullough (31) in individual NCAA titles. UCLA's NCAA champions are: Kim Hamilton (1987-88-89 fl oor, 1989 vault), Pac-10 Newcomer of the Year Jill Andrews (1988 vault, 1989 beam), Stella Umeh (1995 and 1998 fl oor), Heidi Moneymaker (1988 Natalie Padilla bars, 1999 vault), Kiralee Hayashi (1999 beam), Mohini Bhardwaj (2000 bars, 2001 fl oor), Lena Degteva Honorable mention Pac-10 All-Academic Jordan Schwikert (2000 beam), Onnie Willis (2001 all-around), Yvonne Tousek (2001 bars), Jamie Dantzscher (2002 all- 1st-team All-Pac-10 (all-around) around, vault and fl oor; 2003 bars), Kate Richardson (2003 bars and beam, 2006 fl oor), Tasha Schwikert Pac-10 Event Specialist of the Week (Jan. 22-28) (2005 all-around) and Kristen Maloney (2005 vault and beam). Two other Bruins won AIAW national titles Tasha Schwikert - Sharon Shapiro (1980 sweep of all all-around and all four events, 1981 all-around and vault) and Diane 1st-team All-Pac-10 (vault, uneven bars) Dovas (1981 bars). Shapiro remains the only gymnast ever to sweep the all-around and all four events 2nd-team Pac-10 All-Academic Pac-10 Gymnast of the Week (Jan. 29-Feb. 4) in one year at a national championship. Hamilton is the only woman to win three consecutive fl oor titles. p. 1 of 7 UCLA has won at least two individual titles in seven of the last 10 years and three titles in four of the last seven years. The Bruins have won a team or individual title in 10 of the last 11 years and have won more UCLA's Past NCAA Championship History individual titles (19) in the last 11 years than any other team. Year Finish Winner Last Year At NCAAs — Last season, the Bruins battled their way to a fourth-place fi nish, shaking off injuries 2007 4th Georgia to put forth a strong team effort, scoring 196.925, just .325 out of second place. On each of the fi rst three 2006 – Georgia events, the Bruins had to put in an injured athlete at the end of the rotation for strategical purposes, and 2005 4th Georgia each time that athlete came through with scores that counted. First, Ashley Jenkins shook off an injured 2004 1st UCLA ankle to compete on uneven bars and scored a 9.8 that allowed the Bruins to drop a 9.7. On balance beam, 2003 1st UCLA 2002 2nd Alabama Ashley Peckett stepped in to record a 9.825 in the anchor slot to negate an earlier fall. On fl oor exercise, 2001 1st UCLA Ariana Berlin returned to the lineup despite leg soreness and scored 9.75, and Jordan Schwikert shook off 2000 1st UCLA a hamstring injury to hit for a 9.85 to put UCLA just .05 behind second-place Stanford. The Bruins fi nished 1999 5th Georgia strong on vault to pull ahead of Stanford in the fi nal rotation, scoring 49.4. 1998 5th Georgia Anna Li tied for fourth in the all-around and placed ninth on beam and earned All-American honors in the 1997 1st UCLA all-around, vault, bars and beam. Tasha Schwikert was the national runner-up on uneven bars and earned 1996 2nd Alabama All-America acclaim in the all-around, vault and bars. Peckett received her fi rst career All-America honor, 1995 4th Utah earning second-team acclaim on vault. 1994 5th Utah 1993 4th Georgia Schwikert Looking To Bookend Career With National Title — UCLA senior Tasha Schwikert will attempt to 1992 9th Utah reclaim the NCAA all-around title she won in 2005 as a freshman. Schwikert is one of four former champions 1991 – Alabama competing this season. Others are 2007 beam champion Ashley Postell (Utah), 2006 bars co-champion Kristina 1990 4th Utah Baskett (Utah) and 2007 fl oor champion Morgan Dennis (Alabama). Schwikert is looking to become only the 1989 2nd Georgia seventh gymnast in NCAA history to earn multiple all-around titles, joining Megan McCunniff of Utah (1984- 1988 3rd Alabama 85), Penney Hauschild of Alabama (1985-86), Kelly Garrison-Steves of Oklahoma (1987-88), Jenny Hansen 1987 3rd Georgia of Kentucky (1993-95), Kim Arnold of Georgia (1997-98) and Courtney Kupets of Georgia (2006-07).