Michigan State University Athletics
Gymnastics Hosts Big Ten Championship
3/22/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Gymnastics
March 22, 2006
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Championship Home Page Big Ten Women's Gymnastics
EAST LANSING, Mich. - Michigan State will play host to the Big Ten Championship Meet this weekend at Jenison Field House in East Lansing, Mich. The weekend will begin, Friday, March 24, with a 1 p.m. press conference featuring the coaches from all-seven schools, followed by an open practice at Jenison Fieldhouse, beginning at 3:30 p.m. On Saturday, doors open to the public at 4:30 p.m., with opening ceremonies scheduled for 6 p.m. Coming into this weekend's competition three Big Ten schools are ranked in the GymInfo Top 25. No. 7 Michigan leads the trio, followed by No. 16 Penn State, and Minnesota rounds out the group at No. 21. The Spartans enter the contest with an overall record of 11-7 and boast a qualifying score of 193.137, to rank 5th in the central region.
Week In Review...
In its final regular-season meet of the year Michigan State posted its second-highest team score of the season, but fell 196.950-194.725 to in-state rival Michigan. The Spartans had three top three finishes; Kristen Coleman finished with a tie for second on the vault with a score of 9.875. Senior Sarah Alexander tied for second place (9.850) on the beam in her final regular-season home meet, while freshman Briana Dicus also earned a top-three finish in a tie for third (9.800) on the beam.
Championship History...
Saturday's competition marks the 24th Big Ten Championship in the sport of Women's gymnastics. The Spartans have never won the conference title, but have finished in second-place on five seperate occasions, most recently in 1996.
Last season Michigan State netted a 193.775, earning a fourth-place finish, behind Michigan, Penn State and Minnesota. Only four current Spartans, senior Sarah Alexander and juniors Kristen Coleman, Chayla Hill and Victoria Iakounina, have competed in a Big Ten Championship prior to this weekend.
Peaking At The Right Time...
The Spartans have posted their top-two team scores of the season in their last three meets and continue to improve heading into the conference championships. Michigan State netted a season-high 196.250, the third best score in the Big Ten this season, in a win at Northern Illinois on March 11. The score included the best team balance beam total in program history, a 49.475. Last Friday, the Green and White posted a 194.725 in a losing effort at Michigan.
Familliar Faces...
Veterans Sarah Alexander, Kristen Coleman, Chayla Hill and Victoria Iakounina have anchored the Michigan State rotations in 2006. The quartet has combined to capture 53 individual top-three finishes and thirteen trips to the podium in all-around competition, this season.
Alexander has bounced back from an early season injury to post a pair of balance beam titles and a floor exercise victory in the past three meets. Coleman has led the Spartans, placing in eight all-around competitions this season, winning four. Hill is a constant threat on vault, beam and floor, while Iakounina has blossomed into a consistent all-around performer for MSU.
The Central Region Race...
Michigan State currently ranks fifth in the NCAA Division-I Central Region, with a team RQS score of 193.137. Alabama tops the region with an RQS of 196.365, followed by LSU (196.205), Auburn (195.690) and Kentucky (195.225). Following conference championship competition the top-six teams from each region will face-off in the regional finals. This season's regional championship will be hosted by Louisiana State on April 7, at 6 p.m.
Spartan All-Arounders...
Three members of the Michigan State women's gymnastics team rank as top-15 all-arounders in the Big Ten this season. Junior Kristen Coleman sits in fifth-place with an all-around RQS of 38.945, while classmate Victoria Iakounina is 10th with a 38.635 and freshman Katlyn Roggensack boasts a 37.685, good enough for 14th-place. Both Coleman and Iakounina notched career-highs in all-around competition on March 5 at Northern Illinois; Coleman netted a 39.300 to capture first-place, while Iakounina was second with a 39.175.
Arguably the team's best all-arounder, senior Sarah Alexander has yet to compete on the uneven bars this season, while striving to recover fully from a strained abdominal muscle.
Bests On Bars...
Sophomore Rhiannon Banda-Scott and freshman Dani Fanning both set new career-best uneven bar scores in a March 17 loss to the University of Michigan. Banda-Scott posted a 9.775, while Fanning garnered a 9.750 from the judges.
Players Mentioned
