Bowling Green State University Athletics
Marny Oestreng To Compete At NCAA Regional Saturday
March 28, 2000 | Gymnastics
March 28, 2000
Bowling Green sophomore gymnast Marny Oestreng is the top individual all-around qualifier for Saturday's (April 1) NCAA Region 4 Championships at Alabama. The meet is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. CST.
NCAA Region 4 Team Participants are, in order of seeding, #1 Alabama, #2 Iowa State, #3 Central Michigan, #4 Kent, #5 Michigan State and #6 Ohio State.
Joining Oestreng as individual all-around qualifiers are #2 Sally Cantrell of Auburn, #3 Laura Szczepanski of Ball State, #4 Julia Gore of Kentucky and #5 Lori Gerhardt of Western Michigan.
Qualifying for the meet as event specialists are Eastern Michigan's Natalie Hashimoto in the vault, WMU's Andrea Ruhe in the uneven bars, Auburn's Cheryl Lancaster on the balance beam and UK's Mila Chitwood in the floor exercise.
Three NCAA Champions will be competing on April 1. In addition to Oestreng, the 1999 NCAA floor exercise champion, Alabama's Andree' Pickens is the defending balance beam champion, and Iowa State's Betsy Hamm was the 1998 balance beam champion.
It is possible for Oestreng to qualify for the NCAA Championship in one of two ways. She can either win the Region 4 All-Around Championship, or -- if she does not win the all-around -- her score will be placed in a ranking of all scores from the six regional championships. There are six regions with the all-around winners from each region receiving an automatic berth. However, if the winner of the all-around is a member of a team that advances as a team that spot becomes one of the at-large berths. There will be a total of 12 all-around competitors that advance to the NCAA Championship. That is exclusive of the members of the 12 advancing teams.
Oestreng can also qualify in a specific event only by winning that event at the regional competition. Last year, she won the region Floor Exercise and qualified for the NCAA Championship for that event only.
