Spartans Off to NCAA Regional Championships

March 29, 2016

Michigan State at NCAA Athens Regional
Date	Saturday, April 2, 2016
Location	Athens, Ga.; Stegeman Coliseum
Championship Website (with live stats link)	Athens Regional Website
MSU Rotation	Vault, Bye, Bars, Beam, Bye, Floor
Video Webstream	SEC Network +
Pre-Meet Notes	Michigan State \| Georgia \| LSU \| Oregon State \| Arizona \| George Washington
Social Media	@MSUgymnastics \| Facebook

MEET NOTES

• Michigan State (10-10, 4-5 B1G) will compete at the NCAA Regional Championships, and is one of six teams assigned to the regional which will be held at Stegeman Coliseum at the University of Georgia.

• MSU was selected to the 36-team field for the second consecutive season, and the 23rd time in program history. This will be the 17th trip to the NCAA Regionals under head coach Kathie Klages.

• No. 10 seed Georgia is one of six regional hosts along with Alabama, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Utah. Joining MSU in Athens will be No. 3 overall seed LSU, No. 15 overall seed Oregon State, Arizona, and George Washington.

TEAM NOTES
• Season-best results on both floor and vault helped MSU to a seventh place overall finish at the 2016 Big Ten Championship in Lincoln, Neb. on March 19. The Spartans marked their highest finish at Big Tens since 2013, while their team score of 195.475 was their best at the Big Ten Championships since scoring a 195.65 in 2009.

• At Big Tens, MSU scored a season-best 49.000 on vault and a 49.400 on floor exercise. The 49.400 on floor tied for the eighth-best performance all-time, and matched MSU's 49.400 score last February at Illinois. MSU's team vault score (49.000) was tied for 24th in the MSU record book.

• MSU also had strong results at the Big Five meet to help place the Spartans in the evening session of the Big Ten Championships. The 196.300 team score at the Big Five meet tied for sixth-best in program history. The team's beam score ties for the ninth-best in the MSU record book (49.175). The 49.325 on floor matches MSU's 2016 season high and ranks 12th in program history.

• Senior Lisa Burt and junior Elena Lagoski were among the athletes earning All-Big Ten honors, as announced by the Conference office on March 14. Both earned Second Team honors after earning First Team kudos in 2015. Senior Brittany Holmes was MSU's recipient of the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award.

• Burt and Lagoski are the seventh and eighth gymnasts to earn All-Big Ten honors multiple times in their careers. Michelle Ingalls (1988, 1989), Sarah Alexander (2003, 2004), Kristin Coleman (2006, 2007), and Rochelle Robinson (2007, 2008) were two-time selections, while Carolyn Hecht (1996, 1997, 1998) and current assistant coach Nicole Curler (2007, 2008, 2010) each earned All-Big Ten honors three times in their careers.

• At the Big Ten Championships, Lagoski (floor) and sophomore Hailee Westney (bars) each earned a spot on the All-Big Ten Championship Team with top-three finishes.

• Michigan State's team floor RQS, a 49.081, ranks 18th in the nation and fourth in the region. Floor exercise has been MSU's top event score in every meet with the exception of opening night (at Arizona), and MSU has scored a 49.000 or better in 10 of 12 meets this season.

• The Spartans hold regional ranks of ninth on both bars and vault, which is tied for 35th and 39th, respectively, in the national rankings.

• Lisa Burt finished seventh at Big Tens in the all-around with a 39.350, just shy of the career-best 39.375 she posted a week prior at the Big Five meet. The senior finished sixth on vault and 11th on bars on the day.

• Burt has 26 top-three finishes in 2016 and 85 in her career, the most among current Spartans. Posting a career-best 9.925 on bars on Feb. 28 at Illinois State, her first-place effort was tied for the fifth-best score in school history on the apparatus.

• Burt maintains the team's highest RQS in four events, led by her 39.265 All-Around which is fifth in the Central region. She also boasts a 9.865 on bars to tie for 10th in the region and eighth in the B1G, and a 9.825 on beam to rank 22nd in the region and 25th in the league. Her 9.775 vault RQS ties junior Elena Lagoski for the team best, while her floor RQS, a 9.850, ranks tied for 16th in the Big Ten.

• Burt has finished in the top three All-Around seven times this season, and eight times on bars. She is tied with Elena Lagoski's eight top-three finishes on floor for the most on the team in a single discipline this season.

• Burt missed the NCAA Regionals in 2015 with injury, but qualified as an individual in both 2013 and 2014, competing All-Around. She was seventh in the All-Around with a 39.200 in 2014 at the Baton Rouge (La.) regional.

• Elena Lagoski earned a second-place finish on floor at the Big Ten Championships, tying her career best 9.95 for the second time this season and the fifth time in her career -- a score which ties the fifth-best floor score in program history. She owns five of the top 15 individual floor scores in the Spartan record book.

• With a team-high 9.905 RQS on floor, Lagoski is currently tied for fourth in the region and 24th nationally on floor exercise.

• Lagoski owns 18 career individual event titles, 17 of which have come on floor. She has earned seven first-place distinctions and nine top-three finishes in 2016. She also earned her first-ever All-Around title in the season opener at Arizona on Jan. 8, scoring 38.400.

• Along with Lisa Burt, Lagoski is MSU's other two-time NCAA participant. She qualified as an individual on floor in 2014, scoring a 9.875 to finish tied for ninth. She competed in three events in 2015 when the Spartans qualified as a team, finishing in a tie for seventh with a 9.875 on floor, and also competed on beam and vault.

• Then-sophomore Kira Frederick had MSU's top finish at the 2015 regional, finishing in a tie for third on bars with a 9.85, and also posting an identical 9.85 for a 10th-place finish on floor.

• Posting a career-high 9.925 on floor at the Big Five meet (March 12), Frederick shared first place for the 13th top-three finish on her career, 12 of which have come on floor. With a 9.875 floor RQS, she is second on the team, and ranks tied for 14th in the region. With a 9.90 at the Big Ten Championships, she finished tied for fourth.

• Senior Brittany Holmes matched her career high in all events at the Big Five meet to add to a career-high 39.200 all-around. A week later at the B1G Championship, she attained matching 9.800 scores on vault (her career high) and on floor and scored a 38.925 to finish 18th in the all-around.

• Sophomore Hailee Westney recorded a career-high 9.900 on beam at the Big Five meet (March 12) to tie for third, and followed that with a career-best 9.900 on bars at the Big Ten Championships to finish in third place. She improved her bars RQS to a 9.840, which is tied for 22nd in the region.

• Freshman Drew Hendershot finished in a tie for 11th with a 9.850 on floor at the B1G Championships, her seventh consecutive competition with a 9.800 or better. Her RQS (9.840) is tied for 24th in the B1G.

• Haley Sedgewick matched her MSU best for the fourth straight week with a 9.800 on vault at Big Tens to tie for 11th overall. She posted a team-best 9.775 on beam at the Big Five meet a week prior, matching her career high.

• In addition to Hendershot and Sedgewick, two other Spartans made their Big Ten Championship debut on March 19. Jessica Ling competed on bars, and owns a 9.815 RQS in the event. Roya Shirley owns a 9.700 RQS for the Spartans on vault.

• Redshirt senior Ashley Noll garnered a 9.850 on floor at the Big Ten Championship, which tied her career best.