The NCAA News - News and Features

March 31, 1997

National Collegiate

Usual favorites should battle again

Event: 1997 National Collegiate Women's Gymnastics Championships.

Overview: Whoever said change is inevitable certainly didn't know about women's gymnastics. Since the inception of the championships in 1982, Utah, Georgia and Alabama have dominated the event, combining to win all 15 titles. This year, Georgia, Utah and Alabama are the nation's Nos. 1, 2 and 4 teams, respectively (Michigan is ranked No. 3). Georgia, which has won three championships, showcases Leah Brown, Kim Arnold, Karin Lichey and Leslie Angeles. Brown, the defending vault champion, has registered perfect 10s on the vault and floor exercise against Alabama and Michigan. The Bulldogs, who defeated defending champion Alabama twice during the regular season, posted a record-breaking score of 198.075 points against Michigan ... Nine-time champion Utah places its hopes for an unprecedented 10th crown on Summer Reid, Traci Sommer and Angie Leonard. Reid, the defending balance-beam champion, has set career-high marks in the all-around, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise ... Defending individual-event champions Meredith Willard (all-around) and Stephanie Woods (uneven bars) lead Alabama, which also features Kim Bonaventura, Merritt Booth and Danielle McAdams.

Field: Twelve teams. The championships field also will include 12 individual competitors who are not on a qualifying team. Seven teams and seven all-around competitors not already on qualifying teams will compete at each of five regionals; the team and individual all-around winners in each region received an automatic berth in the national championships. The championships field will be filled with at-large teams and all-around competitors who qualified on the basis of scores at the regionals.

Dates and sites: Regional competition will be April 5 at Michigan (Central), Utah (Midwest), Ohio State (Northeast), Kentucky (Southeast) and Boise State (West). The championships will be April 17-19 at Florida.

Information/results: The fax-on-demand telephone number is 770/399-3060 (passcode 1915); request numbers are 1402 for dates and sites, 1403 for bracket/schedule, and 5116-5119 and 5343-5348 for championships results/ notes/quotes. Championship results also will be available on the World Wide Web at www.ncaa.org. Results will be published in the April 28 issue of The NCAA News.

Television coverage: The championships will be broadcast tape-delayed by CBS at 2 p.m. (Eastern time) May 3.