Reighard excited about regional draw, says team has opportunity to qualify for nationals
The Central Michigan gymnastics program for a third consecutive season will compete in the NCAA Regional Tournament.
The NCAA announced pairings Monday afternoon, sending the 25th-ranked Chippewas to Tuscaloosa, Ala., on April 2 for a regional that features three Top-25 teams.
CMU, a No. 5 seed in the tournament, will face No. 2 Alabama, No. 11 Penn State, No. 14 Illinois, No. 22 Auburn and Kentucky. The Chippewas lone loss this season came to Illinois by a score of 195.750-194.525 on Feb. 5.
In a statement released Monday night, head coach Jerry Reighard said he was excited for the regional draw and feels his team will benefit by returning to the site of the 2009 regional.
“We feel it presents us with a tremendous opportunity to qualify for the national championships for the first time in program history,” Reighard said. “We competed at Alabama two years ago, so I think we will be pretty comfortable in that environment.”
Competing in different environments is something that has been a constant stream of battles for Reighard this season, as his team has competed across the county, from California to New Hampshire. In pursuit of his eighth regional championship as head coach, overcoming adversity and performing well on the road is something the Chippewas will need to do once again.
“It definitely was a battle," Reighard said of this season's travel. "We definitely had some tough teams we had to contend with away from home."
Shooting for 196
One of those small battles was the season's lone loss against No. 14 Illinois. Falling to the Fighting Illini on Feb. 2 by a score of 195.750-194.525, CMU expects to learn from that meet and shoot for a 196 mark.
Junior Kristin Teubner said an overall goal of a 196 is something the team was just shy of during the MAC championship meet, and feels if they can reach that their chances of qualifying for the NCAA tournament greatly improves.
“We only went 195 in the MAC’s and our goal is still 196, so we are just slightly off of that,” Teubner said.
Reighard said the number is attainable, as there has been a steady statistical increase in the overall score since the start of the season. CMU has posted a score of 195.000 or higher four times, with its highest season total coming last weekend. Reighard said the improvement is credit to his gymnasts' dedication to their routines.
“We worked extremely hard back in September and October to put these routines together,” Reighard said. “I think we have just really separated ourselves by the caliber of our skills.”
In its past two appearances at regionals, CMU has only slightly missed the cut to compete in the national competition, finishing fourth each time. Last season, the squad finished just .3750 points shy of second-place Nebraska (195.875) in the Lexington, Ky., regional.
In 2009 in Tuscaloosa, Ala., the Chippewas missed the final spot by 1.675 points to Oklahoma (196.600). The top two teams in each region will advance to the NCAA National Championships April 14-16 in Cleveland, Ohio.
