The power-packed SEC, which sports six of the nation’s top 15 gymnastics programs, will showcase its talent today at the SEC Championships in Birmingham, Ala.
No. 15 Arkansas will enter as the No. 6 seed and will compete in the event’s first session at 2:05 p.m. along with No. 12 Auburn, No. 28 Kentucky and No. 38 Missouri. The Razorbacks will open on the uneven bars and progress to the balance beam, floor exercise and vault without a bye. Session II at the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center will feature No. 1 Florida, the defending SEC and NCAA champion, No. 2 LSU, No. 4 Alabama and No. 6 Georgia.
Arkansas, whose fourth-place showing at the 2011 SEC Championships in Birmingham is its best finish, is looking for a strong finale leading into the NCAA Regional, which it will host April 5 at Barnhill Arena in Fayetteville.
“Our objective is to go into the meet and win our session,” Arkansas Co-Coach Mark Cook said. “This is a fantastic meet and just as exciting if not more than the national championship.”
The Razorbacks (5-6, 2-5 SEC) lost dual meets to each of the SEC teams ranked above them and defeated Kentucky and Missouri.
The all-around competition, which features eight of the top 10 gymnasts in the country, should be a worthy preview to the NCAA Championships. Arkansas senior Katherine Grable is ranked third nationally with a regional qualifying score of 39.61. She has nine all-around titles this season, with her only loss coming against No. 1 ranked Bridget Sloan of Florida (39.715).
LSU’s Rheagan Courville (39.62) ranks second nationally.
Arkansas is coming off a 196.65 score in a home loss to then-No. 2 Oklahoma last week.
“I’m glad we got a high score going into postseason, so it adds a lot of confidence going into the postseason,” Arkansas senior Scarlett Williams said.
“We know we have a lot of things to work on, so we’re going to do that in [the SECs],” said Grable, whose floor exercise last week received a 10 from one judge and a 9.95 from the other.
Sports, Pages 26 on 03/22/2014