After 240 individual runs, 23 wins and countless hours in the gymnasium, the 2011 season boils down to possibly one more meet for the women’s gymnastics team.

With all of that emphasis on its upcoming NCAA regional meet, one might think that the team would reflect that kind of pressure. But head coach Jerry Reighard said that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“We haven’t had to be stressed about anything,” Reighard said. “Everybody feels very comfortable and the nice thing for me is that we have had absolutely no panic.”

Competing on Saturday in the Tuscaloosa, Ala., regional at University of Alabama, the 25th-ranked Chippewas will compete against No. 2 Alabama, No. 11 Penn State, No. 14 Illinois, No. 22 Auburn and unranked Kentucky.

The lowered amount of stress may be because of the fact that it will be the team’s third consecutive appearance in the regional, the eighth total in Reighard’s career. For junior Kristin Teubner, the lack of stress is because the team has competed in this championship atmosphere before and knows what to expect from teams like Alabama and Penn State.

“We have seen Illinois, and we have watched Penn State and some of the SEC schools," Teubner said. "They don’t look that much better than we do and we are right there with them."

Teubner will look to continue her hot streak, after taking three MAC titles (beam, floor exercise, all-around) as well as the MAC Co-Gymnast of the Year award at MAC championships.

The rotation draw is also something that CMU likes, as it will start the meet on a bye and finish with two of their strongest events.

“We start on a bye, which is the best of all worlds,” Reighard said, "and then we go to bars which are a great event for us and we’re just feeling really comfortable."

Although one of its weaker events, CMU has averaged 48.602 points per meet on the bars, with their season-high being a 49.300 (against New Hampshire and Brown). Leading the bars squad this season is freshman Alyssa Wilson, who has had a per-meet average of 9.725 with a high of 9.875. Freshman Brittany Petzold won the MAC title for the team on the bars with a 9.850 score.

They will than move to the beam, which has been strong event for the team that saw itself placed in the top-25 in the vent at various points throughout the season. Averaging 48.518 points per meet, the team will look to Teubner who leads the team with a 9.727 average. Teubner is the only CMU gymnast to post a 9.900 (beam) score this season, with her career high score coming in the MAC championships.

Maintaining focus in this event and the entire meet is something senior Cheryl Conlin said will be very important in order for the team to do better in this year’s regional meet.

“The focus is the most important thing because the past two years I have been at regionals we had energy, but I think there was a lack of focus,” Conlin said. “But this year I feel like were the most ready out of any of the teams I have been on.”

The third rotation for CMU is the floor exercise, which saw two Chippewas (Teubner and Conlin) claim MAC titles behind matching 9.850’s. Collectively, the highest-scoring event for the squad, they have averaged 48.800 points per meet, with their high coming against Bowling Green (49.225) on March 12.

The final run for the weekend will be the vault event, Redshirt Freshman Meaghan McWhorter leads the squad with a 9.794 average, with a high of 9.875 (Kent State). The teams as a whole have averaged 48.761 points per, and a high score of 49.175 (New Hampshire and Brown).

For Teubner, it will come down to what has been important all season long — nailing the small technical things where a team can gain or lose points.

“We need to stick a lot of landings and hit all of our handstands and really just perform and be confident in ourselves and I think if we can do that we will be at nationals,” Teubner said.

The top two teams at each regional championship advance to the NCAA Championships on April 14-16 in Cleveland.