March 28, 2011
NCATA Championships central
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -
The Maryland competitive cheer team will head to Eugene, Ore. next week to compete in the National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association's inaugural national championship competition.
The Terps, who completed a perfect 8-0 regular season Saturday, will enter nationals as the No. 2 seed. Oregon (6-1), who Maryland beat Thursday, will be the No. 1 seed.
Seedings were determined based on the teams' average overall meet scores. The NCATA calculates the teams' four highest meet total scores, two of which must be earned at away meets.
The Terrapins earned a first round bye and will compete in the second round against the winner of No. 6 Quinnipiac (1-5) and No. 3 Azusa Pacific (3-4) at 9 p.m. ET Thursday, April 8. The winner of the second round matchup will compete in the national championship match at 11 p.m. ET on Saturday, April 9.
The final day of the championship will include event finals. The four teams with the highest event score averages will compete. The Terrapins will compete in the stunt (No. 4 seed), basket toss (No. 3 seed) and tumbling (No. 1 seed) event finals. There are no event finals for the compulsory or team routine rounds. Event finals begin at 9 p.m. ET on April 9.
Maryland owns the NCATA season high event scores in compulsories (39.79), tumbling (56.42) and the team routine (107.42).
This is the first season the six NCATA member schools competed in all NCATA meets and nationals. An NCATA meet is made up of six rounds, compulsories, stunts, pyramid, basket toss, tumbling and the team routine.
For updated information on Nationals, log on to umterps.com or TheNCATA.org.
-Terps- 