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All-American Trio Travels to NCAA Championships<?xml:namespace prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"?>
?<?xml:namespace prefix="st1" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"?>Nebraska Head Coach: Dan Kendig (15th Year)
?2008 Team Record: 13-9 (3-1 Big 12)
?2008 High Score: 196.675 (vs. Missouri, 1/25/08)
?Last Meet: 3rd/6 (196.10), at NCAA Southeast Regionals, 4/12/08
?2007 NCAA Finish: 6th (195.975 at Super Six Finals)
Nebraska’s All-American trio of individual qualifiers -- seniors Emily Parsons and Desire’ Sniatynski and junior Tricia Woo -- travels to the NCAA Championships in Athens, Ga., on Thursday, April 24. Competition begins at 6 p.m. (CST) at the University of Georgia’s Stegeman Coliseum.
Parsons, an all-arounder, will rotate with OregonState in the afternoon preliminary session, facing Oklahoma, Florida, Arkansas, Alabama and LSU at Noon (CST). Sniatynski, who will rotate with Stanford, will see Denver, UCLA, Georgia and Michigan in the evening preliminary session at 6 p.m. (CST). Woo, a beam and floor specialist, will also compete in the evening session alongside Utah.
As an all-arounder, Parsons will compete in Olympic order, beginning on vault, followed by a bye, then bars, beam, a second bye and floor. Sniatynski opens the meet on floor, followed by vault, a bye, bars, beam and a final bye. Woo will compete exclusively on beam and floor in the third and fifth rotations, respectively.
With a top-four finish on any event in preliminary action, the trio could qualify for NCAA individual event finals on Saturday, April 26, at 5 p.m. (CST). Parsons, Woo and Sniatynski have combined for 15 All-America honors in the last three seasons.
Nebraska (13-9) completed its team season two weeks ago at the NCAA Southeast Regional in Gainesville, Fla. The Huskers placed third (196.10) behind Florida (197.525) and UCLA (196.625), failing to qualify for the NCAA Championships for the first time in nine years.
NCAA Gymnastics Championships Ticket & Schedule Information
Tickets for the 2008 NCAA Championships are sold out, the University of Georgia Ticket Office has announced. In the event that any participating teams return their unused ticket allotment, remaining tickets will be available for public purchase on Monday, April 21, through UGA at www.georgiadogs.com or by calling 877-542-1231.
Type Price
Adult All-Session $55
Youth All-Session (High school and younger) $35
All 12 teams and the individual competitors will practice at Stegeman Coliseum on Wednesday, April 23 from Noon to 7 p.m. (CST). Emily Parsons will practice from 11 p.m. to 12:40 p.m. with OregonState, while Desire’ Sniatynski goes from 4:20 p.m. to 6 p.m. with Stanford. As an event specialist, Tricia Woo will practice from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Thursday’s team competition will begin with Preliminary Session I at Noon (CST), followed by a press conference featuring the head coach and one gymnast from the top three teams. Requests for other participants will also be taken at this time. Preliminary Session II is scheduled for 6 p.m., with a press conference following in the same manner as Session I.
The Super Six Finals will take place on Friday, April 25 at 5 p.m., and will include the top three teams from each preliminary session. Following competition, team and all-around awards, a press conference will take place with each team’s head coach, selected gymnast and additional competitors upon request.
Individual event finals competition will begin at 6 p.m. on Saturday, April 26. Although no all-around competition is included in the individual event finals, competitors will perform on vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise. Following the competition and individual events awards ceremonies, head coaches and event champions will be available for comment in a press conference.
Rotation Order for NCAA Championships Preliminary Session I
The NCAA announced last week the draw of rotation orders for the afternoon and evening sessions of the 12-team NCAA Championships:
Rotation Vault Bye Bars Beam Bye Floor
1 Oklahoma Florida Arkansas Alabama LSU O. State
Clevinger Carabajal Personett Buckley Bogart Parsons
2 O. State Oklahoma Florida Arkansas Alabama LSU
Parsons Clevinger Carabajal Personett Buckley Bogart
3 LSU O. State Oklahoma Florida Arkansas Alabama
Bogart Parsons Clevinger Carabajal Personett Buckley
Hancock
4 Alabama LSU O. State Oklahoma Florida Arkansas
Buckley H. Bogart Parsons Clevinger Carabajal Personett
5 Arkansas Alabama LSU O. State Oklahoma Florida
Personett Buckley Bogart Parsons Clevinger Carabajal
6 Florida Arkansas Alabama LSU O. State Oklahoma
Carabajal Personett Buckley Bogart Parsons Clevinger
Rotation Order for NCAA Championships Preliminary Session II
Rotation Vault Bye Bars Beam Bye Floor
1 Denver Utah UCLA Georgia Michigan Stanford
Cowart Robinson Dwyer Wheeler Perry Sniatynski
2 Stanford Denver Utah UCLA Georgia Michigan
Sniatynski Cowart Robinson Dwyer Wheeler Perry
3 Michigan Stanford Denver Utah UCLA Georgia
Perry Sniatynski Cowart Robinson Dwyer Wheeler
Woo
4 Georgia Michigan Stanford Denver Utah UCLA
Wheeler Perry Sniatynski Cowart Robinson Dwyer
5 UCLA Georgia Michigan Stanford Denver Utah
Dwyer Wheeler Perry Sniatynski Cowart Robinson
Woo
6 Utah UCLA Georgia Michigan Stanford Denver
Robinson Dwyer Wheeler Perry Sniatynski Cowart
Parsons Named Regional Gymnast of the Year
Senior Emily Parsons was honored as the South Central Regional Co-Gymnast of the Year for the third consecutive season, sharing the award with Oklahoma’s Kiara Redmond-Sturms and Allison Buckley of Illinois, the NACGC announced April 12. Parsons previously won the accolade in 2006 and 2007 and has also captured eight NCAA regional event titles over her career.
A nine-time All-American, Parsons finished third on vault and fourth on floor in the individual event finals at the 2007 NCAA Championships to garner first-team All-America honors on both events.
In 2007, the St. Charles, Mo., native was one of four finalists for the Honda Award and snagged Big 12 Conference crowns in the all-around, vault, beam and floor, as well as five all-conference nods. During her career, Parsons has run away with a total of 114 event crowns and has been honored as the South Central Regional Gymnast of the Year three consecutive seasons.
Parsons is ranked third nationally on vault with an RQS of 9.945, as well as ninth in the all-around (39.385) and 10th on floor (9.905).
Parsons Passes Career 100-Title Mark
Entering the final competition of her Nebraska career, Emily Parsons owns a career total of 114 event titles in four years for the Huskers, becoming the first Husker to pass the 100-title mark. Last season, Parsons passed Richelle Simpson, who garnered 77 individual crowns at Nebraska, and Heather Brink, who earned a total of 70 in her career, for the top spot on the program’s event titles chart. Two of Nebraska’s most decorated gymnasts, Simpson and Brink were both two-time NCAA champions in their four-year Husker careers.
Gymnast Years at NU Year 1 Year2 Year 3 Year 4 Total Titles
Emily Parsons 2005-present 16 34 35 29 114
Richelle Simpson 2002-05 9 39 6 23 77
Heather Brink 1997-2000 7 19 10 34 70
Woo One of Two Event Specialists at NCAA Championships
Junior Tricia Woo is one of just two event specialists to qualify for the NCAA Championships, as she and North CarolinaState’s Leigha Hancock were the only two competitors not on a qualifying team in the nation to win or tie for first on an event at their respective regionals two weeks ago. Both Woo and Hancock will join the preliminary-session team competitors on beam, while Woo is the only individual qualifier on floor.
Husker Trio Earns All-Big 12 Honors
Seniors Emily Parsons and Desire’ Sniatynski and junior Tricia Woo were named to the 2008 All-Big 12 team, the conference office announced on March 26. The trio combined for five all-conference honors, with Parsons leading the way with three awards on vault, beam and floor. Sniatynski and Woo earned accolades on bars and beam, respectively.
All-Big 12 teams include the top four Big 12 gymnasts with the highest regional qualifying score (RQS) in each event, excluding all-around, determine all-conference honors. The RQS can be obtained from GymInfo.com.
Woo, Parsons and Sniatynski were also named to the All-Big 12 Championship team for their performances at the Big 12 Championships on March 29.
Sniatynski Notches Career High in All-Around
Senior Desire’ Sniatynski has emerged as one of Nebraska’s top all-around competitors in the last two seasons, and her performance against PennState on March 21 displayed her All-America caliber all-around contributions. Sniatynski claimed her sixth bars title of the year with a career-high 9.925 and also took runner-up honors in the all-around by tying her career best (39.45).
With her career-high 39.45 all-around and 9.90 bars performance against Arizona State on Jan. 13, Sniatynski was honored the following Tuesday as the conference’s first Big 12 Gymnast of the Week for the 2008 season. She earned a second weekly conference honor on Feb. 26.
A three-time All-American on bars, Sniatynski claimed a share of the 2006 Big 12 bars crown with teammate Vanessa Meloche, and Sniatynski has won a total of 20 individual event crowns as a Husker.
Woo Takes on New Role with All-Around
With Nebraska’s bars lineup down to five competitors, junior Tricia Woo stepped up as the sixth competitor on the event for the fourth straight week at the Big 12 Championships, scoring a 9.60. Woo, known for her work on beam and floor, has also filled the No. 2 spot in the vault lineup this season. At Stanford, the Milpitas, Calif., native finished third in the all-around with a career-high score of 39.25, while also notching a pair of 9.90s to tie for the beam and floor titles with 11-time Cardinal All-American Tabitha Yim. At the Big 12 Championships, Woo won the first conference beam title of her career with a 9.90 and also finished third on floor (9.875) and followed up with a pair of regional beam and floor crowns at the NCAA Southeast Regional.
Woo has not seriously trained bars since her days as a Level 10 in California, but finished third on the event at the 2003 California State Championships.
Kendig Builds One of Nation’s Top Programs at Nebraska
Head Coach Dan Kendig is the all-time winningest coach in the 31 years of Nebraska women's gymnastics history. In his 15th season at Nebraska, Kendig is 355-136-4 overall and 249-53-2 in regular-season meets. Kendig is in his 25th year of coaching and owns a career record of 468-248-5.
A seven-time Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year, Kendig has guided the Huskers to nine conference championships and three straight regional championships from 2000 to 2002.
He has also led Nebraska to 11 NCAA Championships appearances in the past 13 seasons, including nine NCAA Super Six Finals appearances (1997-99, 2000-01-02-03-05-06-07). Kendig was honored as the NCAA Coach of the Year in 1999 and 2003, a year in which the Huskers finished fourth nationally.
Under Kendig's guidance in 2007, Nebraska finished with a 26-12 overall record. The Huskers earned their 20th overall conference championship (196.475) and placed second (196.65) in the NCAA West Regional behind Utah. NU also finished sixth (195.975) in the Super Six Finals. Four of Kendig’s gymnasts -- Emily Parsons (V, FX), Michele Zabawa (V, UB), Tricia Woo (BB) and Desire’ Sniatynski (UB) -- earned a total of six All-America honors.
Kendig is assisted by associate head coach Danna Durante, who is in her sixth season with Nebraska, and assistant coach Tim Garrison, who is in his second year on the Husker staff.