April 8, 2010

Regionals Central! | Meet Live Scores | Regionals notes

COLLEGE PARK, Pa. - The Maryland gymnastics team heads to Penn State Thursday afternoon to compete as the No. 4-seed in the University Park Region of the 2010 National Collegiate Women's Gymnastics Championships. The Terrapins will compete Saturday at 6 p.m. in Penn State's Rec Hall.

The Terps will compete in the NCAA Regionals for the 16th time in school history. Maryland is returning to the NCAA Regionals for the second consecutive year. The Terrapins last back-to-back appearances in Regionals in 2003 and 2004.

The other teams in Maryland's region include No. 1-seed Oklahoma, No. 2-seed, Louisiana State, No. 3-seed Penn State, No. 5-seed Ohio State, as well as the Terrapins' East Atlantic Gymnastics League opponent New Hampshire, who will compete as the No. 6 seed.

Maryland is scheduled to compete on the uneven bars in their first rotation, followed by balance beam and floor exercise, and ending on vault.

Five of the eight EAGL teams were included in the spread of 36 in the team competition, including North Carolina, West Virginia and North Carolina State. Pittsburgh and George Washington will be represented by individual competitors.

The Terrapins are coming off of one of the most successful seasons in recent team history. They achieved their highest team score in six years, 195.825, three weeks ago in a home quad meet against No. 16 Auburn, Yale and George Washington.

The Terps ended the season ranked first in the league on balance beam. Freshman Ally Krikorian ended the season leading the EAGL on vault with an RQS of 9.885. In the EAGL championships on March 27, junior Abigail Adams claimed a share of the all-around title with her score of 39.325.

Maryland placed athletes on nine of the ten EAGL first and second teams and freshman Kesley Cofsky was named the league's Rookie of the Year along with Pittsburgh's Meaghan Biros. Assistant coach Vicki Chliszczyk was named the league's Assistant Coach of the Year, along with New Hampshire's Ed Datti.