Vaccher To Compete At NCAA Championships Friday
April 13, 2011
SEATTLE - Freshman Aliza Vaccher (Eugene, Ore.) will be the lone Husky competitor at the 2011 NCAA Gymnastics Championships in Cleveland, Ohio April 15-17. The event is co-hosted by Kent State University and the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission at the Wolstein Center.
Team semifinal and all-around competition will be conducted in two sessions Friday, April 15 at 9 a.m. PT and 3 p.m. PT. The top three teams from each semifinal will advance to the Super Six competition Saturday, April 16 at 1 p.m. The top four individuals from each session in each event (plus ties) from the preliminary team and all-around competition will compete in the individual-event competition Sunday, April 17 at 10 a.m.
Vaccher will compete in the morning session on Friday as a part of Georgia's rotation. She will begin on bars, move to beam, have a bye before floor, perform vault and then have a bye to end the meet. Vaccher will compete after Georgia's team on each rotation.
By finishing second in the all-around at the NCAA Norman Regional, Vaccher earned one of two automatic berths to the NCAA Championships. She posted a career-best 39.250 in the all-around with a 9.850 on vault, a 9.825 on bars, a 9.775 on beam and a 9.800 on floor.
Live Coverage Fans can follow the NCAA Championships with live stats and video on www.ncaa.com. Live video: http://www.ncaa.com/live/2011-04-15/nc-womens-gymnastics.
UW's Individual NCAA History
The Huskies have one individual NCAA Champion as Yumi Mordre won the vault and beam at the 1987 NCAA Championships and was the all-around runner-up. Mordre also competed in the all-around in 1988 and `89. Since Mordre, the Huskies have sent 17 individuals to the NCAA Championships in the all-around, the last was Haley Bogart in 2008 (20th place). The highest finisher in the all-around for UW since Mordre was a third-place finish by Klara Kudilkova in 1998.
Huskies Fall Just Short Of NCAA Championships
The No. 17 Huskies were so close to advancing to the NCAA Championships for the first time since 1998 and upsetting No. 7 Utah for the first time ever at the Norman Regional. UW placed third in the meet with a 195.300. The Huskies started strong on floor, vault and bars and took a .250 lead over the Utes into the final rotation. However, the Huskies stumbled on the beam, falling off twice while Utah was perfect on bars. The third-place Regional finish was the best for UW since 2005, and the team score was UW's best at Regionals since 2003. Also at the end of the day, assistant coaches David McCreary and Shanna Hannan were announced as West Region co-Assistant Coaches of the Year, a very high honor in the loaded region.
Six Huskies Earn All-Pac-10 Academic Honors
The 2011 Pac-10 Conference Women's Gymnastics All-Academic teams have been announced and six Husky student-athletes are on this elite list. To be eligible for selection to the All-Academic Team, a student-athlete must have a minimum 3.0 overall grade-point average and be either a starter or significant contributor. Junior Ruby Engreitz, seniors Kristen Linton and Samantha Walior earned First-Team honors. Senior Haley Bogart and sophomore Lauren Rogers earned Second-Team honors and junior Amanda Cline earned Honorable Mention, respectively.
Four Huskies Earn All-Pac-10 Honors
Amanda Cline (vault), Ruby Engreitz (bars), Kristen Linton (floor) and Samantha Walior (beam & bars) each earned individual honors on their top event. With five total selections, this is the most for UW since the 2008 season. This is also the first time ever that the Huskies have put a gymnast on each of the four event teams. Cline, Engreitz and Linton each earned second-team honors, the first such honors for each of them. Walior earned first-team on the bars and second-team on the beam. She was named to the All-Pac-10 floor team in 2008 and 2009.
The All Pac-10 team is determined by a combination of 50 percent regional qualifying score (entire season composite) and 50 percent Conference Championships score. The All-Conference first team consists of the top six all-around competitors, plus the top three competitors in each individual event who are not among the all-around honorees. The second team All-Pac-10 consists of the top two all-arounders who were not named to the first team (as all-arounders or in an event), after such the top two gymnasts from each event who were not yet named to the first team or the second team would be selected to the second team.
Huskies Impressive At Pac-10 Championships
After a rocky start on the floor, the Huskies finished the meet with a 49.275 on the beam, their first 49+ score on the event this year to end the meet with a 196.025 and finish third at the Pac-10 Championships at UCLA. Oregon State won the meet with a 197.200. UCLA finished second at 196.750. UW beat No. 3 Stanford and snapped an 11-meet losing streak to the Cardinal. It was the second 196+ of the year for the Huskies and their highest score on the beam this season. UW has finished third at the Pac-10 Championships four previous times, the last in 2001. The 196.025 is the best team score by the Huskies since 2004 in the championships. Senior Samantha Walior tied with five others for the bars championship with a career-best 9.90. She is the first individual champion on any event for UW since 2007 and the third-ever bars champion. The Huskies got a 49.000 on bars. UW also got solid performances from Amanda Cline, Kristen Linton, Aliza Vaccher, Haley Bogart, Paige Bixler and Ruby Engreitz.
Seniors Honored In Final Home Meet
Seniors Bogart, Linton and Walior competed in their final meet at Alaska Airlines Arena on March 11, guiding the Huskies to two wins over Air Force and Seattle Pacific. UW posted a team-score of 195.475. On vault and bars the Huskies posted score of 49+. Vaccher won the all-around, tying her career-best score of 39.025. The Huskies placed at least one-through-three on every event as Cline won her fourth vault title of the season, tying her career-best for a third-straight week with a 9.925. Engreitz and Walior tied for the bars title with 9.875's. Walior also won the beam with a 9.825. Linton won yet another floor title, scoring a 9.875.
