NCAA Announces Regional Fields

Lincoln - The NCAA sent out its invitations for the women's gymnastics regional championships on Monday afternoon, setting the six-team field at the NCAA Central Regional. Competition will be hosted by the University of Kentucky at Memorial Coliseum in Lexington, Ky., on Saturday, April 10 at 5 p.m. (CST).

Nebraska, which is 17-4 on the season and ranked 12th nationally, will face No. 1 Alabama in addition to No. 13 Illinois, No. 20 Kentucky, No. 24 Central Michigan and Michigan State. The competition also includes five all-around competitors and one individual event specialist per event. The top two teams and the top two all-around competitors, who are not on an advancing team, will receive an automatic berth to the 2010 NCAA Championships hosted by the University of Florida in Gainesville, Fla., April 22-24. In addition, the event winners will advance to the national championships if they are not part of a qualifying team or the all-around qualifiers.

As the regional's No. 2 seed, Nebraska will open the competition on floor, followed by vault, bye, bars, beam and ending with a bye.

"It's a tough regional, we have the No. 1 seed there and you never know what will happen with No.12 and No. 13 seeds," Head Coach Dan Kendig said. "We have to hit routines. It's the same rotation that we had at the Big 12 Championship. We went through it and did a great job. If we perform the same way at regionals, we will have no issue moving on to Nationals. We're going to do everything we can this week and next week to make that Saturday a great performance."

NU's pair of All-Big 12 performers - junior Erin Davis and sophomore Lora Evenstad - will lead the Huskers into the Central Regional after combining for three Big 12 event titles last weekend. NU will also be led by All-Big 12 Championship Team members juniors Maria Scaffidi and Maddie Steinauer and sophomore Kassandra Nathe.

Tickets for the NCAA Central Regional Championship are available by calling the Kentucky Athletic Ticket Office at 1-800-928-2287 or by going online at http://www.ukathletics.com/tickets/tickets-gymregional.html.

NCAA Central Regional Championship
April 10, 5 p.m. (CST)
Memorial Coliseum, Lexington, Ky.
Host: University of Kentucky

Teams (Rank)
1. Alabama (1)
2. Nebraska (12)
3. Illinois (13)
4. Kentucky (20)
5. Central Michigan (24)
6. Michigan State

All-Around Competitors
1. Kristine Garbarino, Western Michigan
2. Kaylyn Millick, Eastern Michigan
3. Brittney Emmons, Ball State
4. Breanne Guy, Bowling Green
5. Kasey Fillmore, Bowling Green
Alt.- Erin Grigg, Eastern Michigan

Individual Event Specialists
Vault- Danielle Wishart, Bowling Green
            Alt.- Erin Grigg, Eastern Michigan
Bars- Bibiana Rodriguez-Lockwood, Ball State
            Alt.- Katelyn Busacker, Ball State
Beam- Nikole Viltz, Eastern Michigan
            Alt.- Carolina O'Brien, Western Michigan
Floor- Tiffany Brodbeck, Ball State
            Alt.-Danielle Wishart, Bowling Green