April 11, 2008
NORMAL, Ill. -
Junior co-captain Meaghan Koshman and freshman Erica Schick are prepared and ready to compete in the 2008 National Collegiate Women's Gymnastics Championships. Koshman and Schick will compete in the South Central Region of the NCAA Regionals Saturday beginning at 6 p.m. The event will be held in Norman, Okla., hosted by Oklahoma.
Head coach Bob Conkling is confident that Koshman and Schick will perform well at Regionals.
"I expect both of them to do really well on Saturday," said Conkling. "They have been partaking in strong workouts this week, and they are hitting their routines in practice. They are also going into the tournament with positive attitudes. I think all of that will allow them to do really well."
Koshman and Schick will be competing in the all-around competition. The duo will be facing Holly Reichard and Leah Johnson from Northern Illinois and Annie Kachman of Illinois-Chicago.
Koshman will enter the competition with an all-around Regional Qualifying Score (RQS) of 38.455, while Schick will compete with a 38.395.
Koshman averaged high marks throughout the entire season. She finished in first-place in the conference on the vault with a RQS of 9.850. On the floor routine, Koshman finished ninth with a RQS of 9.780.
Schick completed her first-collegiate season in seventh-place in the conference on the uneven bars. Schick had an RQS of 9.725. On the floor routine, she placed 15th with a RQS of 9.710.
Koshman will rotate with Arizona State, while Schick will move with Illinois.
The NCAA Regionals are broken down into six regions. Each region has six teams, five all-around competitors who are not qualified with a team, and one individual specialist per event.
The six teams that make up the field for the South Central Region are Alabama, Oklahoma, Boise State, Arizona State, Illinois and Midwest Independent Conference (MIC) rival Southeast Missouri.
At the conclusion of the event, the qualifiers for Nationals will be announced.
