tumbling, tramp, diving, acrobatics, circus, cheer, dance, martial arts, X sports … and more
Final qualifying meets finished this weekend.
The field is set! …
The championships will be held at the University of Utah on April 26-28.
Teams qualifying to the championships:
* Stanford
* OSU
* Utah
* Nebraska
* Georgia
* Denver University
* Alabama
* Oklahoma
* Florida
* Michigan
* UCLA
* LSU
Sports Girls Play » NCAA National Championships for Womens Gymnastics
Host UTAH qualified as a team, for the record 32nd time.
I’ve mentioned before that Emma loves gymnastics. Since moving to Farmington, she’s been taking a gymnastics class at the local Y. Yesterday, I went to observe the last class of Rollers II–whatever that means–and snapped a few photos (many, many more here).
They started with stretches. Emma held her bridge for more than one minute–all the while staring at me.
This is the final LIVE report from this terrific meet. Men’s NCAA is alive and thriving. I am impressed.
CONGRATULATIONS to David Sender tied with Pejman Ebrahimi (V), Tim McNeill (PB) and Jonathan Horton (HB),
Both Horton and McNeill are two event champions. Well deserved!
EVENT FINALS results:
Horizontal Bar was by far the weakest event. It was nice to see Horton do a routine with 3 big releases.
Horton photo – ESPN
CONGRATULATIONS to Jonathan Horton (FX), Tim McNeill (PH) and Alex Schorsch (Rings).
EVENT FINALS results:
I would have given the Rings title to Ramos, myself.
Ramos photo – ESPN
We Are … Penn State.
CONGRATULATIONS.
It was an extremely competitive meet. Teams started shaky and gained momentum as the night progressed.
The Penn State men’s gymnastics team won its NCAA-record 12th national championship Friday evening at home in Rec Hall in epic, come-from-behind fashion, thrilling a partisan blue-and-white clad crowd of 2,409. The Nittany Lions posted a season high-score of 221.000 to secure 16-year head coach Randy Jepson’s third team title.
“…I am so thrilled for our guys,†said Jepson. “We had a goal at the beginning of the season and they came through with flying colors. They never let down. I am really proud of Matt Cohen and the rest of the group…â€
Penn State edged out powerhouse Oklahoma (220.200) for the crown, depriving the Sooners of their third consecutive national championship and fourth in five years.
…
“…I am unbelievably happy to closeout my career at Penn State by winning a national title at home,†said senior captain and Nissen-Emery Award winner Matt Cohen. “So this is the sweetest way to go out. I am so proud of my coach Randy and my teammates.â€
National Champions! Nittany Lions Capture 12th National Collegiate Men’s Gymnastics Championship – PSU
ESPN has a good photo stream of NCAA Championships pics which will be updated at Individual Event Finals tonight.
Oklahoma’s Taqiy Abdullah-Simmons flips in the air as he performs during the floor exercise during the NCAA Championships in State College, Pa., Friday, April 13, 2007.(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
AA Champion 2007
I subscribed to Mark Mapstone’s excellent Jump Club blog out of the U.K.
He started it a 33yr old skateboarder from Bristol, who “decided to drag his mates kicking and screaming to a Gymnastics club”.
Initially he was suspicious of gymnastics, but he’s getting over that.
Check out a sample post:
Tricking: Gymnastics Vs Martial Arts?
Looking around the net this morning there’s loads of Martial Arts based tricking, but no-where near as much gymnast based tricking.
However when you do find gymnast stuff, one thing jumps out at you. Martial Artists can kick! And gymnasts can flip!
I think both groups of trickers should identify why each excels in certain areas and take tips from each to improve. I was blown away by Champion British Gymnast Damien Walters.
Damien Walters is one of the top tumblers in the world. But — as his video shows — he’s a tremendously versatile performance artist as well.
Click PLAY or watch the video on YouTube.
I would love to see Canadian schools competing officially in NCAA Championships one day.
Gymbrooke citing the Canadian University Press:
Back on Jan. 8, the NCAA announced that it would allow Canadian schools to apply to be members of the giant U.S. college sports organization. A 10-year pilot program would allow international institutions to join the highly-popular, financially-lucrative NCAA. …
UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
It’s no secret that UBC is the front-runner to make the leap to the NCAA, with Thunderbirds athletic director Bob Philip expressing no doubt that “the (NCAA’s) decision was certainly initiated by our interaction with them.†…
UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA
… U of A athletic director Dale Schulha hasn’t been shy about spreading his NCAA intentions to local media. His plan would be for the Golden Bears and Pandas to join the NCAA as a Division II school, but play Division I in hockey and volleyball in a smaller conference, with eyes on having other sports move to that level after a few developmental years.
Read more — Gymbrooke Sports News » The NCAA in Canada?
Taqiy Abdullah-Simmons with coach Mark Williams
Taqiy, a big, powerful guy, had a fantastic competition to upset favourites including his Oklahoma team-mate Jonathan Horton and (my pick) David Sender.
CONGRATULATIONS TAQIY!
1) Taqiy Abdullah-Simmons (Oklahoma) 55.750
2T) Jonathan Horton (Oklahoma) 55.000
2T) Wesley Haagensen (Illinois) 55.000
4T) David Sender (Stanford) 54.000
4T) Justin Laury (Michigan) 54.000
6) Jacob Lee (Minnesota) 53.200
Bio – Oklahoma
Lisa Wang reports good news on International GYMNAST Magazine Online:
The spotlight will be hot in Beijing for the Olympics.
The Chinese women’s team emerged as the most decorated sports team at the CCTV Sports Personality of the Year Awards, held April 7 in Beijing.
The annual sports awards gala for CCTV (Chinese national TV) is the most prestigious event of its kind in China, and selects winners from the top-achieving stars in all sports. The Chinese women’s program won three prizes – Female Sportsperson of the Year, Sports Team of the Year, and Coach of the Year – which was the highest number of awards won by any single sport in the same year.
2006 World Championships triple gold medalist Cheng Fei won for Female Sportsperson of 2006 ….
The 2006 World Championships gold medal-winning team won in the category of Team of the Year. All six members of the team – Cheng, Zhang Nan, He Ning, Zhou Zhuoru, Pang Panpan and Li Ya – took the stage and were recognized for winning China’s first-ever women’s team world title.
Also honored was Lu Shanzhen, Cheng’s personal coach and the Chinese women’s team head coach, who shared the Coach of the Year award with pairs skating coach Yao Bin (coach of world champions Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo) and track-and-field coach Sun Haiping (coach of Olympic champion Liu Xiang).
Gymnastics Coaching.com 