By
Adrienne Mackey
Arizona Daily Wildcat
UA gets No. 5 seed in South Central bracket
The UA gymnastics team found out that all their hard work this season had paid off when the NCAA gymnastics committee announced that the GymCats had qualified for the NCAA Regionals.
Arizona - which had endured numerous less than one point losses throughout the season - had made it.
The No. 23 Wildcats (6-20) are the No. 5 seed in the South Central region and will travel to Lincoln, Neb., tomorrow to meet No. 3 Nebraska (18-1), No. 10 Penn State (16-6), No. 19 Oklahoma (11-5) and No. 25 Illinois State (13-9).
The meet will mark Arizona's 15th consecutive appearance at the Regionals, the second-longest UA post-season streak behind the men's basketball team. Should UA advance this weekend, they could find themselves in National Championships in Athens, Georgia, later this month.
Coming off a sixth-place showing at the Pacific 10 Conference Championships, UA head coach Bill Ryden said he hopes the team will do better at Regionals.
"If we do all four of our events to our capabilities, then I think we have a good chance at making it to Nationals," he said.
There has been one weakness that has followed UA throughout the season - the balance beam.
"We have been falling short on the beam these last few meets, it seems to be our Achilles' heel as of late," Ryden said.
Senior Kara Fry said she is looking forward to the Regionals, where the Wildcat will have a chance to prove they're as tough as their No. 23 ranking.
"This past week and a half of practice has gone really well for us," Fry said. "The atmosphere has been really hyped and excited."
Fry said that the athletes have been hitting their routines in practice, including the always-tough balance beam.
"If we go into Regionals and have the meet of our lives we will advance to Nationals," she said.
