This weekend, the Alabama gymnastics team heads to Lexington, Ky., for its regional competition. They go in as the No. 1 seed, while competing against No. 2 seed Nebraska, No. 3 seed Illinois, host school Kentucky, Central Michigan and Michigan State for one of the two NCAA Championship bids available from the Central Regional.
Head coach Sarah Patterson said the team’s seeding wouldn’t affect the mentality going into regionals.
“I think all you have to do is look back to wherever we’re seeded at the No. 1 seed,” she said. “We had an off event at LSU, and we lost to LSU. In our sport, a fall can separate a team. That’s why you have to go out there and compete all 24 routines.”
To advance, the Tide must place in the top two at regionals. Five of the teams in this region are in the top 20, with Alabama coming in as No. 1 in the nation for the eighth time this season. Nebraska is No. 12, followed by No. 13 Illinois, No. 20 Kentucky and No. 24 Central Michigan. The sixth team, Michigan State, is ranked 27th.
Alabama has won 24 regional competitions and had 116 individual NCAA regional titles. They’ve advanced from regionals to the NCAA Championship 27 consecutive times.
The only team within its region that the Tide faced this season is Kentucky. The gymnasts faced them in Lexington in late February and left with a win. Senior Kassi Price said they were not really going to scout the other teams before the competition.
“Our main focus is on what we’re doing and what we need to improve on,” she said. “That’s really the biggest thing, not really looking around and seeing what the other teams are doing, but just to focus in on yourself and have the best performance you can have.”
For the younger girls, senior Ricki Lebegern said they were both nervous and excited for the upcoming competition.
“They’ve done a great job stepping in,” she said. “The freshmen have done an awesome job. The sophomores are becoming leaders this year from last year. They’re going to be able to take over the team once this season is over and do a great job.”
Price said as a senior, this competition means a lot because there’s been a lot of unity on this team and that it’s been a great year.
“This team has been phenomenal,” she said. “We’ve worked really hard. Whatever the outcome, I’m just so proud to say that I was a part of this team. The experiences that we’ve had have been really amazing this year.”
At the SEC Championships, the Tide came in second to Florida, with Georgia at third. Lebegern said coming in second gave the team motivation to do better at regionals.
“We wanted to win SECs, but we have something else ahead of us that you kind of have to forget about it,” she said. “You can’t really dwell on it.”
After the SEC tournament, Patterson said the team went to work on everything possible, leaving nothing to chance.
“We’ve practiced every possible thing that we will do in the practice day and in the competition day,” she said. “What we tell the ladies is control the things you can control because you can’t control the scores, the judges. All you can do is your performance.”
