Peszek sisters to compete insame meet for the first time.
Liza David
The seventh-ranked UCLA Gymnastics team will travel to Ohio State to compete at the NCAA Columbus Regional. The meet will take place at St. John Arena on Saturday, Apr. 4 at 6pm ET/3pm PT. Joining the Bruins in the Regional will be sixth-ranked Michigan, 18th-ranked Arizona, 21st-ranked Central Michigan, 26th-ranked Kentucky, and host and 32nd-ranked Ohio State.
Qualifying as individual all-arounders are Bowling Green’s Alyssa Nocella, Eastern Michigan’s Anna Willette and Carrina Lo Bello and Western Michigan’s Anna Corbett and Kelsey Hood. Individual event specialists are Jessi Buis from Western Michigan on vault, Jessie Peszek (the younger sister of UCLA senior and 2008 Olympic silver medalist Samantha Peszek) from Western Michigan on uneven bars, and Kent State’s Rachel Stypinski on balance beam and floor exercise.
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 Fort Worth, Texas, April 17-19. In addition, the event winners at each regional will advance to the national championships (in that event only) if they are not part of a qualifying team or an all-around qualifier.
The Bruins will begin the regional meet on a bye before uneven bars then will begin competition in rotation two on bars before moving to beam, a bye, floor exercise and vault. Kentucky begins on vault, Michigan starts on bars, Arizona begins on beam, Central Michigan is on a bye before floor, and Ohio State begins on floor.
This is the second time in three years that UCLA will be competing at Ohio State for the Regionals. The Bruins placed second at the Columbus Regional in 2013 and went on to place fourth at the NCAA Championships. Samantha Peszek won the all-around, bars and beam at last year’s Regional in Fayetteville, where the Bruins placed second as a team.
UCLA has won a total of 20 NCAA Regional titles. The Bruins enter this year’s regional with a RQS of 197.200 and a season average of 196.768. UCLA placed second at the Pac-12 Championship in its last meet on Mar. 21, scoring 197.350, its second-highest score of the season.
The six regional fields and sites are as follows:
Ames Regional (at Iowa State), 4 pm CT: No. 4 LSU, No. 9 Nebraska, No. 16 Denver, No. 24 Washington, No. 28 Michigan State, No. 33 Iowa State
Auburn Regional (at Auburn), 7 pm ET: No. 5 Alabama, No. 8 Auburn, No. 17 Minnesota, No. 23 Iowa, No. 30 Maryland, No. 31 George Washington
Berkeley Regional (at California), 6 pm PT: No. 3 Utah, No. 10 Georgia, No. 15 Boise State, No. 20 California, No. 29 Utah State, No. 35 BYU
Columbus Regional (at Ohio State), 6 pm ET: No. 6 Michigan, No. 7 UCLA, No. 18 Arizona, No. 21 Central Michigan, No. 26 Kentucky, No. 32 Ohio State
Morgantown Regional (at West Virginia), 4 pm ET: No. 2 Florida, No. 11 Stanford, No. 14 Illinois, No. 19 Arkansas, No. 25 New Hampshire, No. 36 West Virginia
Norman Regional (at Oklahoma), 4 pm CT: No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 12 Oregon State, No. 13 Penn State, No. 22 Southern Utah, No. 27 Missouri, No. 34 NC State
Written by Liza David UCLA Sports Information Director
ldavid@athletics.ucla.edu www.uclabruins.com
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