Rasile Earns Rings, Vault Spots At NCAA Event Finals

Champaign, Ill. ? Nebraska senior captain Josh Rasile qualified for the event finals at the NCAA Championships Saturday evening during the individual event preliminaries held in Champaign, Ill.

Rasile, who was one of four Huskers to compete during day two of the NCAA meet, tied for fifth in the still rings (9.475) and finished sixth on the vault (9.55) to propel him into the finals in both events on Sunday.

"Josh [Rasile] obviously did an excellent job at this meet," Coach Francis Allen said. "He just missed qualifying on floor and that might just have been because he was up first, but his performance there was just as outstanding as rings and vault."

On the floor, Rasile finished 11th overall, tying with four other gymnasts with a score of 9.4. The top eight placers from each event qualify for the finals, which left Rasile just outside the loop of advancing in all three of his events.

Three other NU gymnasts competed in Saturday’s competition, including junior Mace Patterson who succeeded to the all-around finals. Unfortunately, Patterson tore a muscle in his chest during his opening rotation and was forced to scratch the remainder of his events.

A series of falls suffered by freshman Paul Chumreonlert on the pommel horse and sophomore Derric Wood on the high bar dropped NUs other individual event hopefuls into the 40th (8.5) and 46th (6.2) in their respective events.

Rasile will be the only Nebraska gymnast competing during the final day of the 2004 NCAA competition. This is his second career trip to the individual finals, and his first in two years after he failed to advance past the preliminaries in the vault in 2003. In his last opportunity in 2002, Rasile finished eighth in the nation overall on the vault with a score of 9.137.

"Tomorrow is a whole new day with a whole new competition," Allen said. "I really expect that Josh will do very well in both of his events, and I’m sure it’s going to be extremely exciting."

The individual event finals competition of the NCAA Championships begins Sunday, April 4 at 2 p.m.

Individual Results (NU Gymnasts Only)
Floor Exercise Score
11(t). Josh Rasile 9.40

Pommel Horse
40(t). Paul Chumreonlert 8.50

Still Rings
5(t). Josh Rasile 9.475

Vault
6. Josh Rasile 9.55

High Bar
46. Derric Wood 6.2