First Place Falcons Face Frenetic Weekend

CHICAGO STYLE INVITE (W/ #18 BOISE STATE, ILLINOIS-CHICAGO, NORTH CAROLINA)
Date	Feb. 7, 2014
Time	8:30 PM
Location	Chicago, Ill. \| Navy Pier
Coverage	Live Results (TBA)
Additional Information	Twitter \| Facebook \| Performance List

BGSU VS. #19 CENTRAL MICHIGAN
Date	Feb. 9, 2014
Time	2:00 PM
Location	Bowling Green, Ohio \| Anderson Arena
Coverage	Live Results
Additional Information	Twitter \| Facebook \| Performance List

Bowling Green, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University gymnastics team has its only double weekend of the season as the Falcons will compete in Chicago for the Chicago Style Invitational Friday before returning home to host a pivotal Mid-American Conference meet Sunday against No. 19 Central Michigan at 2 pm for the team's Pink Meet.

FOLLOW THE FALCONS
Links to live stats and live video (as available) can be found at BGSUFalcons.com for each meet. Fans can follow the BGSU Gymnastics team through Twitter on the official team account @FalconGymn and through the official account of the Athletics Department @BGAthletics.

SHAPING UP THE MAC
At 3-0 in conference meets, Bowling Green is off to its best league start since the 2010 team opened with four straight wins. As expected in the preseason polls, BGSU is one of three teams that have distinguished themselves at the top of the league standings along with No. 25 Kent State and No. 19 Central Michigan. Kent State and darkhorse Northern Illinois are both 2-0 in MAC competition and Central Michigan is 1-0 but much will be determined this week. Kent State and Northern Illinois will meet Friday, while Central Michigan will be at Eastern Michigan Friday before the critical tilt against the Falcons Sunday. Eastern Michigan is 0-2 in conference, with Ball State and Western Michigan both at 0-3.

ABOUT THE CHICAGO STYLE INVITE
Bowling Green will compete against Boise State, Illinois-Chicago and North Carolina in the 2014 Chicago Style College Meet, which is part of the three-day Chicago Style Invitational. The event is billed as the largest women's gymnastics invitational meet in the world and is held at Chicago's Historic Navy Pier. Boise State is one of the top teams in the country, ranked No. 18 with a 195.569 average this year. UIC has posted an average score of 191.000 and North Carolina is averaging a 194.031. By comparison, the Falcons are scoring 193.381 on the season. Individually, Boise State's Ciera Perkins is 11th in the country on the uneven bars.

ABOUT CENTRAL MICHIGAN
In the Mid-American Conference preseason poll, Central Michigan was picked to finish second by the league's coaches. The Chippewas, though, have exceeded those expectations and are the top ranked MAC team in the country at No. 19 by GymInfo. Balance beam and floor have been exceptionally kind to Central Michigan as they are ranked No. 16 on both of those events. Senior Brittany Petzold is one of the top 25 all-around gymnasts in the country.

FALCONS IN THE RANKINGS
As Bowling Green continues to show improvement within the program, the Falcons continue to receive higher rankings individually and as a team. Four Falcons rank in the top 100 in the country in the all-around, led by Alyssa Nocella at No. 72. Lauren Feely (No. 83), Megan Harrington (No. 91) and Gina Locigno (No. 94) are also among the top in the country. As a team, the Falcons are currently at No. 39 nationally (out of 81 teams) and have leaned on the 28th best floor routines in Division I.

LAST TIME OUT
Bowling Green improved to 3-0 in Mid-American Conference competition with a 194.150-193.025 victory over Ball State Friday. Lauren Feely won her first career all-around title by scoring a 38.750. Alyssa Nocella won the uneven bars with a score of 9.800 and the Falcons used their depth to break a 194.000 team score for the second consecutive meet.

FACING THE BEST
BGSU Head Coach Kerrie Turner has bulked up the non-conference schedule and the Falcons are facing numerous ranked teams outside of the MAC. In the season opener, Bowling Green competed in a triangular against then-No. 12 Oregon State (now No. 16) and then-No. 19 Ohio State (now No. 21). This week, BGSU will see No. 18 Boise State in Chicago and will face No. 19 Central Michigan at home Sunday. No. 9 UCLA and No. 25 Kent State are still left to be faced on the schedule.

WHAT A WIN WOULD MEAN
Bowling Green went 5-11 a year ago so two victories this weekend (in four meets) would equal last year's win total. A victory over Central Michigan would make the Falcons 4-0 in conference play, equaling the team's start in 2010. Bowling Green has not posted six wins in a season since the 2008 team went 9-12.

THE ROOKIES
BGSU freshmen Lauren Feely and Rachel Reis have begun to come into their own. In the team's home opener against Eastern Michigan, Feely established her collegiate best all-around score with a 38.750. Reis won the uneven bars at the meet with a 9.750. Following up that meet, Feely won her first career all-around with an identical 38.750 score at Ball State. Reis added another 9.750 on bars.

NOCELLA NAMED GYMNAST OF THE WEEK
BGSU sophomore Alyssa Nocella was named MAC Gymnast of the Week on Jan. 28 after scoring a career-best 39.150 in the all-around and leading BGSU to its second-highest team score since 2005 in a win over Eastern Michigan. Nocella posted at least a 9.725 on all four apparatuses, tying her career-best with a 9.775 on vault.

LIEVENDAG HONORED BY MAC
Junior Amanda Lievendag was named the Mid-American Conference's Specialist of the Week Jan. 14 after posting a meet-best 9.875 on the uneven bars against No. 12 Oregon State and No. 19 Ohio State. She also tied for fifth on the vault with a 9.775. It is the second time Lievendag has earned the award in her career.

PRESEASON POLL
BGSU was picked to finish third in the MAC Preseason Poll, as voted on by the league's coaches. The Falcons finished third during the regular season a year ago and fifth at the MAC Championship. Defending MAC Champion Kent State was picked to repeat, followed by Central Michigan. Following BGSU, Northern Illinois was selected fourth and Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan and Ball State round out the preseason standings.

SOLID FOUNDATION
BGSU Head Coach Kerrie Turner was named MAC Coach of the Year in 2013 with good reason. She has pushed the program forward after the team went 0-6 in the MAC in 2011. The 2012 team improved incrementally to 1-5 and the 2013 squad moved to 3-3. The Falcons return most of their contributors from a year ago, as well as adding a strong freshman class, and have begun the season 2-0 in MAC play.

THE MAC CHAMPS ARE BACK
BGSU is the only school in the MAC to return a pair of individual champions from a year ago in junior Jamilah Ali and sophomore Alyssa Nocella. Ali won the vault a year ago and Nocella claimed the balance beam title. The duo represent just the second and third MAC individual champions under Turner, who began her head coaching tenure at BGSU in 2008.

FIVE ADDED FOR 2014
Earlier this fall, BGSU announced five additions to the gymnastics program for the 2015 season. Morgan Denlinger (Lancaster, Pa./Hempfield HS/Prestige Gymnastics Club), Taylor Livingston (Hartland, Mich./Hartland HS/Geddert's Twisters Gymnastics Club), Shannon Goniwiecha (Rochester Hills, Mich./Stoney Creek HS/Oakland Gymnastics), Kylie Bosco (Illinois Gymnastics Institute) and McKenna Schoenberger (Maple City Gymnastics) will all join the program next year.

HALL OF FAME
BGSU gymnastics alumnus Marny Oestreng was inducted into the BGSU Athletics Hall of Fame over the summer. Oestreng, a 2002 BGSU graduate, won the 1999 NCAA Championship in the floor exercise. Her school- and career-best score in the all-around while at BG was 39.600, and she also posted the program's best-ever scores in the floor exercise (9.975), uneven bars (9.950), vault (9.950) and balance beam (9.925).

SCHOLASTIC ALL-AMERICANS
In August, five Falcons were named Scholastic All-Americans by the National Association of College Gymnastics Coaches for Women (NACGC). Student-athletes must have a grade point average of 3.50 or higher to be honored. Senior Megan Harrington and sophomores Caroline Ellingboe and Alyssa Nocella, along with graduates Monica Eaton and Sunny Marchand (who is now an assistant coach with the team), received the recognition.

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