March 19, 1999
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The No. 10 University of Maryland women's gymnastics team plays host for 1999 East Atlantic Gymnastics League (EAGL) Championships on Saturday, March 27 at 6 p.m. in Cole Field House. This is the first time in school history that Maryland has hosted a gymnastics championship.
The event pits the Terps against some of the top teams in the country, including No. 21 West Virginia, No. 23 NC State, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Towson and Rutgers. More than 140 gymnasts will compete in the event with Maryland considered as this year's favorites.
The Terps, however, will have a tough task in claiming their first EAGL title. The Mountaineers have won every EAGL championship in the three year existence of the league and are still one of the top teams in the conference. West Virginia has only two losses on the entire season, but one of those losses came at the hands of the Terps. The Terps and Mountaineers tune-up for next week's championships this weekend as they compete in a quad-meet in Morgantown, W.V.
Maryland, which has a is headed to the NCAA Southeast Region Championships after EAGL's, has achieved its highest national ranking ever with the help of three freshmen. Gillian Cote (Fredericksburg, Va./James Monroe) and Laura Moon (Scottsdale, Ariz./Saguaro) have taken the gymnastics world by storm, breaking Maryland records on an almost weekly-basis. Cote has broken both the Maryland all-time record for all-around, bars, and floor three times, and the all-time record on beam once. Moon has broken the all-around record once and has tied the vault record on two occasions. Cote is currently ranked No. 7 in the nation in the all-around competition and No. 8 in the nation on bars. Moon is ranked No. 14 in the nation on all-around. Kit Johnson (Virginia Beach, Va./Salem) has also sparked Maryland this season, recording the fourth-best vault score in school history twice and registering the second highest beam score in school history.
Tickets are now on sale and can be purchased by calling the ticket office at (301) 314-7007. Adult tickets are $7 per person and children's, senior citizens and Maryland student's tickets are $5 each. Also, for groups of 15 or more, tickets can be purchased in advance for $4 per person. Please call the ticket office of the sports information office at (301) 314-7007 for additional information or directions to Cole Field House.
