W Gym topples Alabama for NCAA Regional Championship
The NCAA Regional Championships today began across the country.
Six 6-team regionals with the top two teams from each advancing to the NCAA Tumbling Twelve in St. Louis in pursuit of a National Championship.
The B1G Champion Wolverines drew the 7 seed and a regional 2 seed. The highest ranked 2 seed. Michigan headed to the Morgantown Regional in Morgantown, WV.
The 1 seed in the region was longtime nemesis 6 seed Alabama.
The four other teams in the NCAA were 18 Southern Utah, George Washington, Kent State and host West Virginia.
Michigan has been hitting at the right time, scoring above 197 as a team in the last 5 meets after a very rough start to the season.
Today would be no different. The Wolverines continued to hit everything and put up huge numbers.
Michigan would win the NCAA Morgantown Regional with a score of 197.350, the second highest regional championship-winning score in program history.
Paige Zaziski took home NCAA Regional Championships in the All-Around and Uneven Bars, with Nicole Artz winning her 3rd NCAA Regional title on the Balance Beam.
Michigan took 3 of 4 event titles as a team.
This is the 12th NCAA Regional Championship in program history. Michigan and Alabama finished in the top-2, so both advance to the NCAA Tumbling Twelve in two weeks down in St. Louis.
The final results-
| Place | Team | Score |
| 1. | 7 Michigan | 197.300 |
| 2. | 6 Alabama | 196.625 |
| 3. | West Virginia | 196.325 |
| 4. | 18 Southern Utah | 195.675 |
| 5. | George Washington | 195.625 |
| 6. | Kent State | 194.375 |
Thank you for the updates on ALL the other sports. I appreciate it and read them all.
Michigan is 3rd in the Directors Cup, behind Stanford in 1st (of course) and fellow B1G ten foe- Wisconsin in 2nd. Penn State is #4. Ohio State is #8.
Lets overtake the Badgers and stave off late finshers in the PAC: ie #5 USC, #12 UCLA
and keep an eye on #7 UNC.
http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/nacda/sports/directorscup/auto_pdf/…
As of last season: the amount of times a university has been in the top 10
|
Stanford |
23 |
|
Florida |
23 |
|
UCLA |
21 |
|
UNC |
19 |
|
Michigan |
17 |
|
Texas |
17 |
|
USC |
14 |
|
OSU |
10 |
|
Georgia |
9 |
|
California |
8 |
|
PennState |
8 |
|
Virginia |
7 |
|
Duke |
6 |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NACDA_Directors'_Cup
Of note:
Standford has won it every except the 1st.
Last year it was:
1) Stanford
2) OSU
3) Michigan
Our women's tennis is currently top 10 and men's tennis top 20 and water polo is very strong as well.
The regional was held at WVU, and
(1) Morgantown is closer to Ann Arbor than to Tuscaloosa
(2) The home team Mountaineers wore uniforms with suspiciously similar style and colors to those of Michigan. Obviously some of the judges were confused and misapplied the requisite home-team favoritism. Evidence (a) W.Va:
(b) UofM*
(3) Michigan's coach went to WVU and competed there in gymnastics. Very suspicious.
I supposed we don't need to consider that Alabama had some uncharacteristic glitches and had to count 3 scores below 9.75 (which is still pretty darn good), while Michigan didn't have to count a single one. Alabama is a terrific team. Michigan beating them proves they're peaking at the right time.
*EDIT: Photo distortion. While Brianna Brown always has a lovely line on the bars, her legs aren't really that long. But it was great to see her compete again. She's been out most of the year, and it certainly helps to have her back, even if it's only on this one event and (I think) only the second time this season.