Gymnastics Team Climbs to Third in National Rankings
3/23/2009 12:00:00 AM | Gymnastics
March 23, 2009
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The Alabama gymnastics team climbed to No. 3 in the latest national rankings on the strength of its Southeastern Conference Championship winning 197.300.
In addition to propelling the Crimson Tide to its sixth conference title, Alabama's score from Saturday night was its best road and second highest score of the season. Placing among the top six nationally this week makes the Tide a No. 1 seed for the upcoming NCAA regional competitions. Six teams will gather in Tuscaloosa Saturday, April 4 for the Northeast Regional and will vie for one of two spots to the NCAA Championships.
Georgia remains No. 1 this week, followed by Utah at No. 2. Stanford comes in at No. 4 followed by LSU, Florida, UCLA, Oregon State and Oklahoma. Auburn is ranked No. 11 while Penn State rounds out the top dozen teams.
Alabama is ranked in the top five on all four apparatus, coming in third on the vault, fourth on the balance beam and floor exercise and fifth on the uneven bars.
Junior Ricki Lebegern is ranked 17th and junior Morgan Dennis is 18th in the all-around. Dennis is also third on the floor exercise and eighth on the vault while Lebegern is 19th on the balance beam. Freshman Ashley Priess is eighth on the floor exercise, 14th on the uneven bars and 15th on the balance beam. Sophomore Kayla Hoffman jumped into the vault rankings at No. 15 and freshman Geralen Stack-Eaton is 25th on the balance beam.
Tickets for the NCAA Northeast Regional Championships are available through the Alabama Ticket Office (205.348.2262) located in the lobby of Coleman Coliseum and online at RollTide.com.
Players Mentioned
