Issued: March 29, 2004

GYMNASTS TO COMPETE AT NCGA NATIONALS

EAU CLAIRE - The UW-Eau Claire gymnastics team, with a fourth-place finish at the National Collegiate Gymnastics Association West Regional, will travel to Cambridge, Massachusetts for national competition this Friday and Saturday.

The Blugolds join seven other teams from around the country who qualified for the NCGA Nationals. Joining Eau Claire from the West Region is UW-La Crosse, Gustavus, and Hamline while SUNY-Brockport, Ithaca College, SUNY-Cortland, and host Massachusetts Institute of Technology join the competition from the East Region.

The Blugolds finished in fourth place at the West Regional with a score of 179.850. Three-time defending national champion La Crosse won the event with a team score of 185.125. Gustavus claimed second with a score of 182.500 while Hamline took third, scoring 180.825.

Lynn Morris (So-Monticello, IN/Twin Lakes) and Alison Eagles (Jr.-Shoreview, MN/Mounds View) earned the top two spots in the all-around competition for the Blugolds, leading them to the fourth-place finish. Morris earned an all-around score of 36.925 to win the individual title. She placed in the top seven in three of the four events, including a third place finish in the balance beam competition with a score of 9.400. She tied for sixth in the vault (9.325) and seventh in the uneven bars competition (9.000).

Morris will be attempting to defend her national championship crown in the balance beam competition. She became only the second Blugold ever to win an individual championship when she tied for first place in the balance beam at the 2003 Nationals with a score of 19.100.

Eagles earned a score of 36.875 to bring home second place in the all-around. She finished second place in vault (9.525), sixth in the uneven bars (9.025), and ninth in the floor exercise (9.375). She earned All-American honors at last year's national competition in the vault with a fourth place finish in the event.

Kristina Reitzel (Sr.-Oakdale, MN/Hill-Murray) also earned All-American honors last season in the all-around competition, claiming 10th in the competition.

Ashley Brett (Fr.-Forest Lake, MN) had a tremendous performance in the floor exercise at the NCGA West Regional, taking second place with a score of 9.500. Chelsea Romportl (Fr.-Rice Lake) earned 12th place in the all-around with a score of 35.600.

The Blugolds set all kinds of school records in 2003-04, as the team posted six of the top 10 all-time team scores in school history. Eau Claire broke the old school record for highest team score three different times during the season, including a score of 185.525 in a Division I meet in Colorado.

Individually, Eagles broke three event records, setting the mark in the all-around, uneven bars and the vault.

The team competition will be held on Friday and is set to begin at approximately 6:20 p.m. Individual competition will be held on Saturday and will begin at 6:45 p.m.

NCGA Nationals Web Site