Women seeded fourth at NCAAs

After coming in second place at the NCAA Central Regional this past weekend in Baton Rouge, La., the women’s gymnastics team was awarded a four seed in the upcoming NCAA Championships.

Stanford is one of 12 teams which will be present at the event; UCLA and Oregon State were the only other Pac-10 schools to qualify for the Championships. The only teams seeded in front of the Cardinal are No. 1 Georgia, No. 2 Florida and No. 3 Louisiana State.

The Cardinal women will look to improve off of their fifth-place finish at last year’s meet. The team has all of its key contributors back from last year’s squad, so a higher finish — and a national championship — is certainly not out of the question.

The NCAA Championships will begin on April 24 and conclude on April 26, with competition taking place at the University of Georgia.

NCAA Championships come to Stanford

All eyes will be on Maples Pavilion this weekend as the top-ranked Stanford men’s gymnastics squad hosts the 2008 NCAA Championships. The Championships will run from tomorrow until Saturday.

The upcoming championship meet will feature 12 teams separated into two sessions. Oklahoma, Penn State, Michigan, Ohio State, Nebraska and William & Mary begin competition at 1 p.m. on Thursday. The second wave of teams, featuring Stanford, California, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa and Temple, starts at 7 p.m.

“Hosting is a great opportunity to showcase the most exciting and energized gymnastics competition there is,” head coach Thom Glielmi told GoStanford.com. “The arena will be buzzing with energy and the competition will be great.”

— Jack Salisbury