MAC Title On The Line Thursday

BGSU (7-6, 4-1 MAC) AT KENT STATE (8-3, 5-0 MAC)
Date	March 6, 2014
Time	7:00 PM
Location	Kent, Ohio \| MAC Center
Coverage	Live Stats (TBA) \| Live Video
Additional Information	Twitter \| Facebook \| Performance List

Bowling Green, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University gymnastics team will compete for a regular season Mid-American Conference regular season championship Thursday night as the Falcons take on Kent State on the road for a 7 pm meet. Heading into the final conference meet of the year, Kent State is the only unbeaten at 5-0 and BGSU sits one game behind at 4-1.

FOLLOW THE FALCONS
Links to live stats and live video (as available) can be found at BGSUFalcons.com for all meets. 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
Kent State remains the only team in the MAC with a perfect conference record at 5-0. Central Michigan and Bowling Green are both 4-1. With a win Thursday, BGSU would earn at least a share of the conference crown and CMU could join Kent State and the Falcons with a win over Western Michigan March 15. After those three teams, Northern Illinois sits at 2-3, Eastern Michigan is 1-3, Western Michigan is 1-4 and Ball State is 0-4.

THURSDAY'S OPPONENT
This week, Kent State dropped out of the top 25 in the country for the first time this year and is currently ranked No. 28. The Golden Flashes have thrived on floor exercise and rank No. 21 in the country on the apparatus. Kent State's worst event is the uneven bars at No. 36 in the nation. Marie Case is 16th in the country in the all-around, averaging 39.181 per meet and she is 27th on the floor. Kent State's best score this year was a 195.700 against Ball State and the Golden Flashes have been over 194.000 in every meet this year.

REGIONAL QUALIFICATION
After struggling in a loss at Texas Woman's this week, Bowling Green dropped from No. 34 in the country to No. 38. The top 36 teams in the country will earn a trip to NCAA Regionals. The Falcons' Regional Qualifying Score (RQS) of 194.355 puts the Falcons just ahead of Iowa State, Michigan State and Maryland, but the Falcons need to catch the teams just in front of them in Pittsburgh, West Virginia and Utah State. Each team gets credit for their 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 for an RQS for each team.

FALCONS IN THE RANKINGS
The Falcons dropped four spots in the national rankings from No. 34 to No. 38 this week. Four Falcons rank in the top 65 in the country in the all-around, led by Alyssa Nocella at No. 50. As a team, the Falcons have leaned on the 29th best floor routines in Division I. Listed below are all BGSU individuals ranked in the top 100 in the country in an event:

Vault – 72. Lauren Feely
Floor – 54. Megan Harrington, 69. Alyssa Nocella
All-Around – 50. Alyssa Nocella, 57. Megan Harrington, 59. Lauren Feely, 64. Gina Locigno

LAST TIME OUT
Bowling Green headed to Texas and came up short in a 194.250-193.325 loss to Texas Woman's University Saturday. The Falcons fell behind early after struggling on bars but battled back to take the lead with strong rotations on both vault and floor exercise. Unfortunately, BGSU tripped up on the balance beam, allowing TWU to battle back to win the meet. Gina Locigno again won the all-around with a 38.825, while Megan Harrington posted a meet-best score of 9.850 on the floor.

FACING THE BEST
BGSU Head Coach Kerrie Turner has bulked up the non-conference schedule and the Falcons are facing numerous ranked teams this year. In the season opener, Bowling Green competed in a triangular against then-No. 12 Oregon State (now No. 15) and then-No. 19 Ohio State (now No. 24). In Chicago, BGSU faced then-No. 18 Boise State (now No. 16) and then met then-No. 19 (Now No. 17) Central Michigan in venerable Anderson Arena two days later. No. 8 UCLA remains on the schedule, along with a Kent State team that just dropped out of the top 25 rankings this week.

WHAT A WIN WOULD MEAN
With a win, Bowling Green would earn a share of its first conference championship since 2002. The Falcons already have seven wins this season, a feat that has not been accomplished since 2008 when the team went 9-12. The Falcons also continue to strive for a finish above .500 in the regular season, which the team has not accomplished since 2002 when they went 17-1.

LIEVENDAG NAMED MAC SPECIALIST OF THE WEEK
Junior Amanda Lievendag was named the Mid-American Conference's Specialist of the Week on February 25, marking the second time she has earned the award this year. She scored a meet-best against Northern Illinois on vault with a 9.825 and then went on to post another 9.825, a meet-high on the uneven bars. Her first honor came Jan. 14 after scoring a meet-best 9.875 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 have begun the season 4-1 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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