April 2, 2003
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Columbia, Mo.-The No. 26 ranked Mizzou gymnastics program welcomes some of the nations finest competitors to the Hearnes Center as it hosts the 2003 NCAA South Central Regional on Saturday, April 12 at 6:00 p.m.
Five of the country's supreme teams will join the Tigers vying for advancement to the NCAA National Championship in Lincoln, Neb., held April 24-26. The two top teams from each of the six regional competitions will advance to the national meet, along with the top two individual all-around and event specialist athletes.
Spearheading the excitement of the South Central Regional, Missouri welcomes the No. 1 ranked UCLA Bruins to the arena. In addition, No. 12 Oregon State, No. 13 Iowa, No. 19 Arizona and Illinois-Chicago join Mizzou to round out the six-team competition.
Competing in the individual all-around are Illinois' Ashley Williams and Kara Kapernekas, Northern Illinois' Kristina Campos, Southeast Missouri State's Ashley Godwin and Illinois State's Denise Houda. Participating on one event, Texas Women's University exhibits the talents of Luci Romberg (vault), Amber McMeans (floor) and Stephanie Loudat (bars). Lisa Klein will compete on beam representing Illinois State.
The competition kicks off on Friday when all six teams, along with the individual qualifiers, participate in a practice session. Sessions are scheduled to begin at 2:00 and 4:00 p.m. Prior to the beginning of each session, media interviews will be held in the media interview room on the arena level of the Hearnes Center. Head Coaches and top athletes from each of the six teams will be available from 1:30-2:00 p.m., for the first session and 3:30-4:00 for the second session. Media representatives requiring access to these interviews need to fax credential requests to Whitney Vernieuw in the Missouri Athletic Media Relations Office at (573) 882-4720.
Tickets to the 2003 South Central Regional are still available by visiting or calling the Hearnes Center Ticket Office at 1-800-CAT-PAWS or 884-PAWS locally. Tickets are $6 for adults and $4 for youth and seniors.
FOR FULL PRACTICE SESSION INFORMATION AND COMPETITION ROTATIONS, PLEASE OPEN THE ADOBE ACROBAT PDF VERSION OF THIS RELEASE.