Alabama Will Compete In Evening Session of NCAA Gymnastics Prelims
4/5/2004 12:00:00 AM | Gymnastics
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» National Rotation Schedule 
Last Saturday night the University of Alabama gymnastics team earned their 22nd consecutive bid to the NCAA Championships. Sunday they found out who their competition was to advance to the Super Six Finals.
On Thursday, April 15, The Crimson Tide will compete in the evening session (7 p.m. PT) of the team preliminaries in Los Angeles, Calif. along with UCLA, Utah, LSU, Michigan and Arizona State. The top-3 scoring teams from that session will advance to the next night's Super Six.
In the afternoon session (1 p.m. PT), three Super Six finalists will emerge from a group that includes Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Stanford.
Alabama will start Thursday on a bye before moving to the floor exercise. From there they will go vault, bye and uneven bars before finishing the evening on the balance beam.
"This is a familiar rotation for us," head coach Sarah Patterson said. "We won a national championship on this rotation in 2002 and we have beaten both LSU and Michigan in their gym finishing on balance beam."
Alabama, along with Oklahoma, advanced as the top-two finishers at the NCAA West Region Championship held in Corvallis, Ore. Of the 11 other teams at this year's NCAA Championships, the Crimson Tide has competed against five of them, beating all of them at least once.
While Alabama, Florida, Utah and Georgia have all been to more than 20 NCAA Championships, Iowa is the relative newcomer, making just their second appearance. Oklahoma is the only team who was not at last year's championship.
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NCAA |
Consecutive | |
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|
Appearances |
Appearances |
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|
23 |
23 |
|
|
22 |
22 |
|
|
22 |
4 |
|
UCLA |
21 |
13 |
|
|
21 |
21 |
|
|
19 |
2 |
|
LSU |
15 |
3 |
|
|
15 |
6 |
|
|
13 |
12 |
|
Stanford |
7 |
4 |
|
|
4 |
1 |
|
|
2 |
2 |
