No. 21 @MizzouGym Heads to St. Louis for Saturday's SEC Championship

2018 SEC GYMNASTICS CHAMPIONSHIP
Date/Time	Saturday, March 24 \| 2 p.m. CT
Location	St. Louis, Mo. \| Chaifetz Arena
TV/Live Video	SEC Network
Live Results	SECSports.com
Meet Information	Championship Central \| Mizzou Meet Notes

COLUMBIA, Mo. - The No. 21 Missouri gymnastics team opens postseason competition at the 2018 Southeastern Conference Gymnastics Championship on Saturday, March 24 at Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis, Mo.

The Tigers will compete in the afternoon session at 2 p.m. with No. 11 Arkansas, No. 16 Auburn and No. 18 Georgia, while No. LSU, No. 5 Florida, No. 6 Alabama and No. 9 Kentucky go in the evening session at 6 p.m. The afternoon session will be televised live on SEC Network and the evening session on ESPN2.

TIGER TIDBITS

Mizzou held steady at No. 21 in this week's national rankings
Missouri closed the regular season with a pair of wins against in-state foes Lindenwood and Southeast Missouri on March 16. The Tigers scored a 196.800, ahead of Lindenwood's 195.200 and SEMO's 192.500
In the meet, junior Britney Ward earned at least a share of two event titles, while senior Kennedi Harris, junior Madeline Huber and sophomore Aspen Tucker all claimed wins as well. Ward took home the beam crown and tied Tucker for the win on vault, Harris nabbed the floor victory and Huber earned top honors on bars
The Tigers' 196.800 is the ninth-highest team score in program history
Mizzou also tied the seventh-best beam total in school history on March 16 with a 49.275
Huber and Ward each won event titles as Missouri scored a 196.050 to finish second in a tri-meet against Iowa State and Iowa on March 9 in Ames, Iowa. The Cyclones claimed the win with a total of 196.700, while the Hawkeyes took third with 195.600 points
The Tigers posted one of the biggest wins in program history on March 2 when the squad took down No. 5 Florida, 196.925-196.625 at the Hearnes Center
It was Mizzou's first-ever win over the Gators, as the team entered the matchup 0-22 all-time in the series
The Tigers' victory also marked the squad's third top 10 win of the season, as the team defeated Arkansas twice when the Razorbacks were ranked No. 8 (Feb. 16) and No. 10 (Jan. 19)
The 196.925 was a season-high team score and stands as the seventh-best output in team history
Head Coach Shannon Welker enters his fifth season at the helm of the Tiger program. In his first four years in Columbia, Welker has Mizzou back in the national spotlight. In 2017, the Tigers finished 17th in the national ranking. The 2017 season also saw Mizzou go 3-4 in Southeastern Conference dual meet action, with wins over No. 12 Arkansas, No. 12 Kentucky and No. 18 Auburn. The Tigers entered the season with just one SEC dual win in program history

LAST TIME OUT

The Mizzou gymnastics team closed the regular season with a first-place showing in the State of Missouri on March 16. The Tigers scored a 196.800 – its second-highest total of the season – to record wins over Lindenwood (195.200) and Southeast Missouri (192.500)
Junior Britney Ward earned at least a share of two event titles, while senior Kennedi Harris, junior Madeline Huber and sophomore Aspen Tucker all claimed wins as well. Ward took home the beam crown and tied Tucker for the win on vault, Harris nabbed the floor victory and Huber earned top honors on bars
The Tigers started out with a 49.175 on vault, led by Tucker and Ward, who both secured 9.875s. Sophomore Morgan Porter scored a season-best 9.85
Mizzou continued to impress with a 49.150 on bars. Huber helped keep their lead scoring a 9.9. Several of the Tigers scored a 9.8 or better: senior Shauna Miller scored a 9.8, Tucker added an 9.8, Porter finished with a 9.875
The highest event score of the night was a 49.275 on beam. Ward tied her season-best with a 9.95 for the event win, and senior Tia Allbritten and junior Brooke Kelly both tied their career-high scores on beam; Allbritten scored a 9.875, and Kelly tallied a 9.925
Five Tigers scored over a 9.8 on floor helping Mizzou score a 49.200. Both junior Michaelee Turner and Huber scored a 9.8. Tucker added a 9.85, and Harris closed out the night with a 9.9.

MISSOURI RANKED 21ST IN LATEST NATIONAL POLL

Mizzou fell two spots to No. 21 in the national rankings
The rankings are determined by regional qualifying score. To get an RQS, a team's three highest away scores and the next three highest scores are added together. The highest score is dropped, then that number is divided by five for the RQS
Missouri was 17th in the preseason coaches poll, announced on Dec. 11

TIGERS DEFEAT THE GATORS FOR THE FIRST TIME IN SCHOOL HISTORY

The Tigers defeated the No. 5 Gators for the first-time ever on March 2, when the squad earned a 196.925-196.625
Missouri entered the meet 0-22 all-time against Florida
The 196.925 was a season best by 0.3, bettering the 196.625 recorded the previous meet on Feb. 25
The win also marked Mizzou's third top 10 win of the season
Mizzou also defeated Arkansas twice this year while the Razorbacks were ranked in the top 10
The 196.925 also marked the seventh-highest team score in program history

MIZZOU GOES HIGH IN STATE OF MISSOURI MEET

Mizzou scored its second-highest score of the season in a tri-meet against Lindenwood and Southeast Missouri on March 16
The Tigers totaled a 196.800, which ranks behind on the 196.925 recorded against Florida on March 2
The meet also marked the third time this season the squad scored 49 or higher on all four events, as they went 49.275 on beam, 49.200 on floor, 49.175 on vault and 49.150 on bars
Missouri also accomplished the feat against Florida on March 2 and Arkansas on Jan. 19

PORTER MAKES HER ALL-AROUND RETURN

Redshirt sophomore Morgan Porter competed as an all-arounder and earned a 39.175 at Iowa State on March 9
It was Porter's first time competing all four events since suffered a ruptured achilles tendon on Jan. 20, 2017
Porter, who has been in the bars lineup all season and been in the vault and beam lineups all but twice, competed on floor for the first time at Iowa State
The Overland, Mo., native responded earned a 9.850 on floor on March 9, in her first competitive floor routine since Jan. 15, 2017
Porter earned SEC Freshman of the Year honors and earned an individual invitation to the NCAA Championships during an outstanding freshman season in 2016
That season she notched 41 scores of 9.800 or higher (the most by a Mizzou freshman in program history) and erupted for an all-around tally of 39.675 against Arkansas, the second-highest all-around total in Tiger history
She also competed 54 of a possible 56 routines during her freshman season

HUBER, WARD TAKE EVENT WINS AT IOWA STATE

Juniors Madeleine Huber and Britney Ward both took home event crowns in a tri-meet against Iowa and host Iowa State on March 9
Huber claimed top honors on bars with a career-high-tying 9.925 on the event on Mizzou's final routine of the night
It was the second event win of Huber's career
Ward's 9.875 on beam in the first rotation held up for the junior's second beam victory of the season
Ward now has a team-high 26 career event titles, with 14 on beam and 12 on vault

TIGERS POST THIRD TOP 10 WIN OF THE SEASON

Mizzou has three top 10 wins on the season, two over the Arkansas Razorbacks and one over the Florida Gators
Most recently, the Tigers defeated No. 5 Florida, 196.925-196.625, on March 2
defeated No. 8 Arkansas, 196.025-195.525 at the Mardi Gras Invitational on Feb. 16
Earlier in the season, Missouri posted a 196.325-196.150 home win over the No. 10 Razorbacks on Jan. 19 at the Hearnes Center and a 196.025-195.525 victory over the same Arkansas team at the Mardi Gras Invitational on Feb. 16
Prior to this season, Mizzou's last top 10 win was a 195.800-195.350 victory over No. 9 Georgia on Jan. 22, 2016

Schedule