NCAA regional championships recap
In Baton Rouge, the Stanford Cardinal earned a team score of 197.275, good for second place overall behind No. 3 Louisiana State. The score is the second highest at an NCAA regional in program history. It also marks the seventh time Stanford advances to the NCAA championships in the past eight years.
The California Golden Bears' season came to an end as they finished in fourth place in the Minneapolis regional. Their score of 195.7 represented the highest total recorded in an NCAA regional in program history. Seniors Dallas Crawford and Alicia Asturias qualified for the individual competition of the NCAA championships as Crawford won bars and Asturias was second in the all-around.
Despite a strong effort, the Arizona Wildcats finished sixth at the Baton Rouge regional and missed qualifying for the NCAA championships. Highlights for the Wildcats included Shelby Edwards (9.925) posting the fourth-highest vault score, Kristin Klarenbach scoring a 9.9 on the floor and Allie Flores finishing tied for seventh in the all-around with a 39.2 total.
UCLA punched its ticket to the NCAA championships in a performance that came down to the wire at the Fayetteville regional. The Bruins' score of 196.6 earned them second place just ahead of Arkansas' 196.375. Samantha Peszek came through big time with wins in the all-around (39.7), bars (9.95) and beam (9.95).
The host Washington Huskies finished in fourth place in the Seattle regional as Alabama and Nebraska took the top two spots. The Huskies ended up with a score of 195.55, topping out with a 49.0 on bars. Allison Northey (39.2) and Aliza Vaccher (39.075) recorded strong performances in the all-around.
Legendary coach John Spini ended his 34-year career with a fourth place finish at the Fayettville regional. The Sun Devils tallied a score of 194.425, finishing behind fellow Pac-12 schools Utah and UCLA. Spini wraps up his historic run with a record of 358-235-2, all with Arizona State.
Although the Beavers scored a meet-high 49.125 on the beam at the University Park regional site, they finished third overall behind No. 1 Florida and No. 15 Penn State with a final score of 196.525. The Beavers were a place away from advancing to the NCAA championships. Chelsea Tang, Madeline Gardiner and Kaytianna McMillan qualified for the individual competition.
The Pac-12 champion Utah Utes proved their dominance once again by taking the Fayettville regional crown and automatically qualifying for the NCAA championships. The Utes will appear in the championships for a record 39th-consecutive year. Utah was in third place after two rotations before surging ahead on strong floor and vault rotations and finishing with a score of 197.3
The 2014 NCAA championships will take place April 18-20 in Alabama.