Bowling Green State University Athletics
Saturday, April 5
Baton Rouge, La.
4:00 PM
Bowling Green State University
at
NCAA Regional Championship
Photo by: Bianca Garza, BGSU Marketing and Communications
Nocella, Locigno, Harrington Off To LSU For Regionals
April 02, 2014 | Gymnastics
| NCAA BATON ROUGE REGIONAL | |
| Date | April 5, 2014 |
| Time | 4:00 PM |
| Location | Baton Rouge, La. | Pete Maravich Assembly Center |
| Coverage | Live Stats | Live Video | NCAA Regional Central |
| Additional Information | Twitter | Facebook | Performance List |
Bowling Green, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University gymnastics team will send three student-athletes to the NCAA Regional Championships Saturday at the Baton Rouge Regional, hosted by LSU. Alyssa Nocella, Gina Locigno and Megan Harrington will all represent the Falcons in the all-around competition. Lauren Feely is an alternate in both the all-around and the vault. The meet is set to begin at 4 pm.
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.
WHAT'S IT GONNA TAKE?
In order for BGSU to be represented at the NCAA National Championships, one of the Falcons all-around competitors at the NCAA Regionals must finish among the top two all-arounders at the Baton Rouge Regional among those not advancing as part of a team. The top two teams (out of the six at the regional site) will advance to the NCAA National Championships, leaving Alyssa Nocella, Gina Locigno and Megan Harrington to battle with all-arounders from four other teams as well as the two other individual all-around competitors at the meet (Michigan State's Alina Cartwright and Lisa Burt).
MAC CHAMP
Junior Amanda Lievendag became the most recent Falcon to earn a MAC individual championship when she shared the vault title at the MAC Championships two weeks ago. Her score of 9.850 was tied for the top score at the meet. Junior Jamilah Ali (vault) and sophomore Alyssa Nocella (balance beam) won MAC titles a year ago. Lievendag is the fourth MAC individual champion under head coach Kerrie Turner.
LAST TIME OUT
Bowling Green posted its best MAC Championships result in 22 years, placing third at the league event, hosted by Eastern Michigan. The Falcons improved from fifth a year ago and finished behind the only two teams to defeat them in MAC competition during the regular season – Central Michigan and Kent State. Amanda Lievendag earned a MAC individual championship in the vault with a 9.850.
FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR
Lauren Feely became the fourth athlete in BGSU history to earn the Mid-American Conference's Gymnastics Freshman of the Year award, as well as the second in three years, joining Jamilah Ali in 2012, Marny Oestreng in 1999 and Heather Ferguson in 1995. Feely, who also earned second team All-MAC honors, made an immediate impact as one of the team's most consistent vaulters. Seven times she scored at least a 9.800 on the apparatus and she also spent considerable time competing in the all-around with a personal best of 38.975.
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 No. 12 Oregon State and then-No. 19 Ohio State (now No. 22). In Chicago, BGSU faced then-No. 18 Boise State (now No. 16) and then met then-No. 19 Central Michigan (now No. 18) in venerable Anderson Arena two days later. BGSU closed out the regular season at then-No. 7 (now No. 8) UCLA. BGSU also faced three other teams that qualified for NCAA Regionals in Kent State, Maryland at Utah State. Eight of Bowling Green's nine losses came against teams advancing to the postseason.
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.
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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