MAC Championship Time For Falcons

MAC CHAMPIONSHIP
Date	March 22, 2014
Time	2:00 PM
Location	Ypsilanti, Mich. \| Convocation Center
Coverage	Live Stats
Additional Information	Twitter \| Facebook \| Performance List

Bowling Green, Ohio –The Bowling Green State University Gymnastics team heads to Eastern Michigan University for the MAC Championships Saturday at 2 p.m. The Falcons are one of the favorites for the meet after finishing third in the conference during the regular season.

FOLLOW THE FALCONS
A link for live stats can be found on BGSUFalcons.com for the MAC Championship. 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
The Falcons finished the regular season in third place in the MAC with a record of 4-2. Kent State finished the season undefeated at 6-0 and Central Michigan placed second at 5-1. Northern Illinois ended fourth at 3-3, while Eastern Michigan was fifth at 2-4. Western Michigan went 1-5 and Ball State was last at 0-6 during the season. For the MAC Championships, records are erased and all teams begin on even footing Saturday.

DEFENDING THEIR TITLES
Junior Jamilah Ali and sophomore Alyssa Nocella will look to defend MAC Championships from a year ago. Ali won the vault title in 2013, while Nocella claimed the balance beam championship. The duo represented just the second and third MAC individual champions under head coach Kerrie Turner.

REGIONAL QUALIFICATION
The Falcons dropped to No. 42 in the country this week after a third-place finish in a triangular meet at UCLA with Utah State. The Falcons have a Regional Qualifying Score (RQS) of 194.695 at this point and need to raise that average above 195.000 in order to qualify for NCAA Regionals. RQS is determined by taking each team's top three away scores and their next three top scores (either home or away). The top score is dropped and the five remaining scores are averaged. The 36 teams with the best RQS then compete in NCAA Regionals..

FALCONS IN THE RANKINGS
After finishing third in a triangular meet with UCLA and Utah State, the Falcons dropped from No. 39 to No. 42 in the rankings. The Falcons need to fall within the top 36 in order to qualify for the NCAA Regional Tournament. The team's best event this year has been the floor exercise and the team ranks No. 33 in the country on that apparatus. The Falcons are also No. 35 in the country on vault. Individually, Alyssa Nocella is ranked 58th in the country in the all-around. Listed below are all BGSU individuals ranked in the top 100 in the country in an event:

Vault – 85. Lauren Feely
Floor – 60. Alyssa Nocella, 68. Megan Harrington
All-Around – 58. Alyssa Nocella, 73. Megan Harrington, 74. Gina Locigno, 76. Lauren Feely

LAST TIME OUT
The Falcons finished third in their triangular meet against UCLA and Utah State this past week with an overall score of 194.175. This gave the Falcons their seventh finish above 194.000, the most since 2002. The Falcons also posted their third-best score of the season on uneven bars, scoring a 48.650. BGSU then struggled on the balance beam with an overall score of 47.975, but the Falcons finished strong on their final two events, posting a 48.825 on floor and a 48.725 on vault. Sophomore Alyssa Nocella posted the team's best all-around score with a 39.050. This was Nocella's fourth time finishing above 39.000 in the all-around category this season.

FACING THE BEST
BGSU Head Coach Kerrie Turner bulked up the non-conference schedule and the Falcons faced numerous ranked teams this year. In the season opener, Bowling Green competed in a triangular against then-No. 12 (now No. 11) Oregon State and then-No. 19 Ohio State (now No. 24). In Chicago, BGSU faced then-No. 18 Boise State (now No. 17) and then met then-No. 19 Central Michigan (now No. 18) in venerable Anderson Arena two days later. The Falcons closed MAC play at Kent State, a team that has been in-and-out of the top 25 this year. BGSU closed out the regular season at No. 7 UCLA this past weekend.

WHAT A WIN WOULD MEAN
Bowling Green will look to improve upon last year's fifth place finish at the MAC Championships Saturday. In fact, the Falcons have not finished higher than fifth since 2009 or higher than fourth since placing third in 1991. If BGSU were to end as the runner-up, it would be the first time since 1987. The program won MAC Championships in 1982, 1983 and 1985.

LIEVENDAG NAMED MAC SPECIALIST OF THE WEEK THREE TIMES
Junior Amanda Lievendag has earned the Mid-American Conference's Specialist of the Week honors three times, most recently on March 11 after posting meet-best scores on both vault and uneven bars, including a 9.925 on bars. She earned the honor Feb. 25 after a meet-best 9.825 on vault against Northern Illinois and also picked up the award on Jan. 14 after a meet-best 9.987 on bars against No. 12 Oregon State and No. 19 Ohio State.

HARRINGTON NAMED GYMNAST OF THE WEEK
BGSU senior Megan Harrington was named MAC Gymnast of the Week on Feb. 10 following a career-best 39.100 in the all-around last weekend at the Chicago meet. Harrington also posted an all-around score of 39.075 just two days later at Central Michigan. Both scores were good for second place at both meets. Harrington also scored season-highs in the vault with a 9.800 as well as on the bars with a 9.725 in weekend's first meet in Chicago. Harrington then went on to score a career-best on beam with a 9.850, while tying her bars score of 9.725 in the meet against CMU. She posted at least a 9.675 in all eight rotations on the weekend.

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.

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 went 4-2 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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