NU Finishes with Solid Effort at NCAA Championships

The Nebraska women’s gymnastics team gave a strong finish to the 2006 season April 20-22 at the NCAA Championships in Corvallis, Ore., placing fifth in the team competition and taking away an overall record of 27-10-1 on the year. Seven Huskers earned nine All-America honors at the event, while three competitors qualified for the individual event finals. Nebraska’s appearance at the NCAA Championships was its eighth in a row and 17th overall.

Emily Parsons continued her dominance through her sophomore year, as she was named a first-team All-American in the all-around, vault and floor exercise, bringing her career total to seven All-America awards. Parsons finished fourth on vault (9.825) and sixth on floor exercise (9.90) in the NCAA Event Finals after being named the 2006 South Central Regional Gymnast of the Year and capturing three regional event crowns and two individual Big 12 titles.

 

A native of St. Charles, Mo., she has claimed 50 individual event titles in her two years at Nebraska, including 34 in her second-year campaign. The 2006 season saw Parsons run away with eight all-around crowns, as well as nine titles on vault, seven on beam and 10 on floor. Parsons also rewrote her individual record books this year, as she posted an astounding career-high 39.625 all-around score against Michigan on Jan. 13, as well as a career-best 9.85 on the uneven bars in NU’s tie with the Wolverines. She added three career-high scores of 9.925 on beam, a stellar 9.975 on vault against Arkansas and two floor performances worthy of a 9.95, her latest coming at the preliminary session of the NCAA Championships.

Freshman Tricia Woo earned the first All-America honors of her career, as she was a first-team honoree on floor and a second-team selection on beam. The three-event competitor from Milpitas, Calif., completed her first season with two individual titles on beam and one on floor. Woo was also honored on the All-Big 12 beam team after finishing third at the Big 12 Championships in Lincoln.

Redshirt freshman Vanessa Meloche was the final Husker to compete in the individual event finals, as she was a first-team All-America selection on bars. Meloche finished 10th on the event, capping a strong inaugural campaign that saw her take a share of the Big 12 bars crown. She also earned a total of six titles on her sole event while grabbing all-conference honors on bars for her first-place finish at the Big 12 Championships.

 

Junior Michele Zabawa and sophomore Desire’ Sniatynski garnered second-team All-America awards on bars for the second year in a row, as the duo tied for eighth with matching scores of 9.825 in the first preliminary session. Zabawa, one of two Nebraska natives on the roster, is now a three-time All-American, having earned second-team honors on vault as a freshman. She captured two bars titles in 2006, while Sniatynski won a pair of bars titles of her own, as well as one beam crown in the Huskers’ trip to PennState in early February.

Junior Stephanie Carter finished her third year as a Husker with a solid performance at nationals, posting a 9.75 on vault, 9.70 on beam and 9.85 on floor in preliminaries to earn second-team All-America status on floor. The Bryn Athyn, Pa., native was named All-Big 12 on vault, posting a mark of 9.875 on the event at the conference championships, and earned two individual vault titles over the course of the year. Carter, a five-time Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll member, also had considerable success in the classroom, as she was named to the academic All-Big 12 first team for the second time in her career in 2006.

Freshman Kylie Stone had a solid debut for Nebraska this season, earning second-team All-America honors on vault for a seventh-place 9.85 in the preliminaries, and an All-Big 12 nod in the all-around after finishing fourth (39.20) at the conference championships a month earlier. Stone, a 2004 Canadian Olympian, won the all-around (39.20) and floor (9.90) crowns with then-career highs at PennState in February. She shattered three of her career bests at the NCAA Super Six Finals, posting a 39.40 in the all-around, a 9.925 on floor and a 9.85 on bars, while tying her season high of 9.80 on beam.

 

Sophomore Brittney Williams turned in a strong season to help NU to its fifth-place finish at the NCAA Championships. Williams competed on vault, bars and floor for the Huskers, was one of Nebraska’s most dependable workers on bars. Although she was slowed by an injury suffered in Nebraska’s first meet of the season at LSU, Williams came back with a vengeance, and her season-high-tying 9.725 on vault in the preliminary session of nationals helped seal the Huskers’ first-place finish that day and bid to team finals the following night. Her 9.725 vault and 9.775 floor performances at the NCAA Southeast Regional in Athens, Ga., also established new season highs on both events for the Hatboro, Pa., native.

 

Freshman Sabrina Long competed in three events over the course of the year for NU, contributing on vault, beam and floor. Long occupied the leadoff spot on vault and floor most often, and competed on all three at the Big 12 Championships in Lincoln, where her scores included a career-high 9.675 on beam and a 9.625 on floor. While her 9.775 career best on floor came at Oklahoma on Feb. 4, she followed up with a season-high mark of 9.85 on vault the next week at the Penn State Quadrangular.

 

Junior Dani Millis and sophomore Kylee Johnson were slowed by injuries in 2006, as Millis competed once on floor in exhibition, and Johnson made no appearances due to rehabilitation for her torn Achilles. Millis ? a key reserve on all four events ? was one of NU’s leaders in the classroom, however, as she was named to the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll for the fifth consecutive semester. Freshman Alise Cecchini was also a key reserve for the Huskers, as she was considered a strong backup on beam.

 

With the Huskers’ 27-10-1 in 2006, head coach Dan Kendig finished his 13th season at Nebraska with a program-best 312-114-4 record, continuing his impressive career as the winningest coach in NU women’s gymnastics history. The 1999 and 2003 NCAA Coach of the Year, Kendig has taken the Husker program to new heights, guiding his teams to 10 conference championships. During Kendig’s tenure, Nebraska has qualified for the NCAA Championships 11 times, making eight appearances at the Super Six Finals. He has coached 27 All-Americans to 88 first- or second-team honors.

2006 Season Highlights

• NU finished with a 27-10-1 record and placed fifth at the NCAA Championships after making its eighth Super Six Finals appearance in program history.
• Seven Huskers earned a total of 10 All-America awards: sophomore Emily Parsons (AA, V, FX), freshman Tricia Woo (BB, FX), redshirt freshman Vanessa Meloche (UB), junior Michele Zabawa (UB), sophomore Desire’ Sniatynski (UB), junior Stephanie Carter (FX) and freshman Kylie Stone (V).
• Five Huskers earned All-Big 12 honors: Parsons (AA, V, BB, FX), Meloche (UB), Sniatynski (UB), Carter (V), Woo (BB) and Stone (AA).
• Zabawa and Carter earned first-team academic All-Big 12 honors.
• Carter, Zabawa and junior Dani Millis were named to the Big 12 Commissioner’s Fall Honor Roll.
• Parsons was honored as the 2006 South Central Regional Gymnast of the Year, becoming just the fourth Husker to win a regional gymnast-of-the-year superlative.
• Parsons won the NCAA Southeast Regional all-around (39.50), vault (9.95) and floor (9.90) titles, claiming all three regional crowns for the second year in a row.
• Parsons was the only Husker to be named Big 12 Gymnast of the Week in 2006. She earned the honor four times this season to push her career total to six awards, as she was a two-time awardee as a freshman in 2005.