April 11, 2008

LOGAN, Utah - Six Utah State gymnasts will be competing in the NCAA North Central Regional Gymnastics Championships on Saturday, April 12 at Minneapolis, Minn. The meet, which is hosted by the University of Minnesota at UM's Sports Pavilion, starts at 5 p.m. (MT).

Junior Nick Felley and sophomore Heather Heinrich will be competing in the all-around while senior Megan Tschida will be on floor. The freshmen trio of Nicole Simoneau, Lyndsie Boone and Jasmine Minion will be on bars, beam and vault, respectively.

Live video and stats for the NCAA North Central Regional Championships is available through www.gophersports.com and clicking on "live video" or "live stats" or by going to the gymnastics page at www.utahstateaggies.com, going to schedule/results, then clicking on "watch live" or "live stats."

Second-ranked Utah, No. 11 Arkansas, 14th-ranked Arizona, No. 23 Iowa and 27th-ranked Southern Utah will join host Minnesota, ranked No. 28, in the team competition. Other individuals in the all-around include Air Force's Abigail Rogers, Michelle Denise and Brittany Dutton, while Utah State has all four individual event competitors.

For the first rotation, Heinrich is on vault, while Felley has a bye and Tschida is on floor. Heinrich has a bye for the second rotation, while Minion is on vault and Felley is on bars. The third rotation slates Heinrich on bars and Felley on beam, while Simoneau is on bars for the fourth rotation and Heinrich moves to beam, while Felley has a bye. Rotation five has Boone on beam while Heinrich has a by and Felley is on floor. The sixth and final rotation has Felley on vault while Heinrich is on floor.

The top two teams and the top two all-around competitors (who are not on an advancing team) from each regional will receive an automatic berth to the national championships in Athens, Ga., April 24-26, hosted by the University of Georgia.

In addition, the event winners at the regional championships will advance to the national championships (in that event only) if they are not part of a qualifying team or the all-around qualifiers.

Felley has an RQS of 38.595 in the all-around, currently ranked 17th in the region, while Heinrich has a 38.320 RQS in the all-around which ranks 19th in the region.

Tschida is a St. Paul, Minn. native returning to compete in her hometown for only the second time in her career, as the Aggies competed at Minnesota in a dual in 2006, her sophomore season. Tschida ranks seventh in the region with an RQS of 9.860 on floor.

Minion qualified to regionals with a 9.840 vault RQS, ranking 10th in the region, while Boone has a 9.600 RQS on beam which ranks her 47th regionally and Simoneau has an RQS of 9.845 on bars which ranks sixth in the region.

This is just the fifth time in 31 years that the Aggies have not advanced to regionals as a team and the second in last three years after not qualifying in 2006.

That year, USU had two individuals in Jessica Parenti-Otte and Meagan Lewis qualify as individual all-arounders. Parenti-Otte and Lewis finished 14th and 15th respectively, as Parenti-Otte notched a 38.775, while Lewis posted a 38.725.

The last USU gymnast to individually qualify for the NCAA National Championships was Amber Jamison in 1999.

-USU-