NCGA E-Newsletter February, 2002

Greetings to all:

I hope everyone is enjoying the Olympics and avoiding the mid-winter bugs that are flying around. A lot has happened in the NCGA since the January 30th newsletter and it is shaping up to be a dramatic showdown at the Regional meets coming up on the second weekend in March. This will be the last newsletter until after the Regional meets. The MIDWEST schools will compete on Friday night March 8th at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN. The EAST schools will compete on Saturday March 9th at Ursinus College in Collegeville, PA. As you may or may not know, the Regional score will count 60% in determining the teams that qualify to nationals. The other 40% will come from the Seasonal Average Score which is basically the top four scores throughout the year as follows: 1 home, 2 away and 1 optional (home or away). The top four teams from each region will move on to the National Championships March 22nd and 23rd at Ithaca, NY. Please note that there will continue to be weekly updates posted on the NCGA News page as we head down the stretch.

There have been some great scores posted by the NCGA teams over the last three weeks. Just this past weekend, Ithaca College scored an NCGA season high 183.0 at their Invitational. Ursinus is now the current team leader in the rankings on the strength of 5 consecutive scores of 182+. Cortland State has 4 consecutive scores better than 180 and they are running second in the rankings. Ithaca is third and LaCrosse, who was leading the way three weeks ago, is now in fourth. Gustavus and Hamline have made jumps in the standings as well, to 5th and 9th respectively. The early surprise team of SUNY-Brockport has been steady at 7th, having been overtaken by 4 teams when they were sitting at number 3 three weeks ago. The Golden Eagles suffered an injury to one of their top all-arounders which sidelined her for three meets, but now that she is back, this young team is in position to make a run for a National berth. The newest and brightest surprise is the team from UW-Whitewater. Seemingly out of nowhere, this team has jumped from 12th place to 8th and 3rd overall within their region. A traditionally high 160s, low 170s team hit 180 for the first time ever this year. The team members are breaking all kinds of individual school records and the second place finisher at last year's Nationals team of UW-Oshkosh, is in danger of not even qualifying to the meet this year. Ahead of Oshkosh is also the team from River Falls which has had a very successful season so far as well.

The teams still have two more weekends to improve their SAS and set themselves up for the regional showdown. In the EAST, Ursinus, Ithaca and SUNY-Cortland seem to have control of 3 out of the 4 spots. The last spot is up for grabs between Springfield and SUNY-Brockport with MIT and Rhode Island College still holding an outside chance. In the MIDWEST, LaCrosse, Gustavus, Whitewater and Hamline are the current leaders and seem to be pulling away from the field, but we cannot count out River Falls and the team from Oshkosh either. Individually, the races are very tight. The rankings are flip-flopping every week and you can see them at Rankings . The current leaders are: on Vault - Kristen Grimmel from Ursinus, on Bars - Melissa Stanton from Hamline, on Beam, Janelle Domaradzki from SUNY-Cortland, on Floor, Leslie Gelatt from Ithaca and the all-around is led by defending champion Melissa Stanton from Hamline.

This is a sport about consistency, and anything can happen on any given day, so no team and no individual is counted out until the last score is flashed. Will the young team from SUNY-Brockport (all first and second year athletes) be able to mount a challenge to Springfield who has not missed a National meet since joining the NCGA? Will the team from Whitewater be able to hold on and qualify to their first NCGA meet as team? Those questions will be answered over the next 16 days. Personally I think it's going to be a lot of fun and I can't wait to see what happens.

Stay tuned....

Eduardo

"No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded of each other's worth" - Robert Southey