April 6, 2009
COLUMBIA, Mo. -
Junior Sarah Shire (Columbia, Mo.) will rotate with top-seeded University of Georgia and senior Adrianne Perry (Columbia, Mo.) with the No. 6 seed University of Florida in next weekend's National Gymnastics Championships, the NCAA announced today. The championships, hosted by the University of Nebraska, will be held April 16-18 at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.
Shire is the second-seeded all-around competitor in the championships, second only to Jessica Lopez of Denver, with her Regional total of 39.450. Perry is the fifth seed in the competition after her 39.350 finish in the Northeastern Regional. This is the fourth appearance in the national competition for Perry, the first Tiger to do so.
Both Shire and Perry will start the afternoon with their respective teams on floor and end on beam, just as the Tigers did this past weekend at Regionals. Shire and Georgia will start the afternoon on a bye, whereas Perry and Florida will end the competition on a bye.
Preliminary competition will be held in two sessions at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 16. Perry and Shire both compete in the first session at 1 p.m.
The top four individuals from each session in each event (plus ties) from the preliminary team and all-around competition will compete in the individual-event competition at 6 p.m. on Saturday, April 18. The top three teams from each time slot will advance to the Super Six at 6 p.m. on Friday, April 17.
Both gymnasts will be vying for All-American honors, given to the top eight finishers on each event and in the all-around. Missouri's last All-American was Alisha Robinson, who claimed the honor in 2005 on the vault. The Tigers have never taken an all-around All-American title.
Shire is ranked No. 10 overall by GymInfo (first in Big 12), as well as No. 7 on beam (second in Big 12), No. 11 on the vault (first in Big 12), No. 29 on the floor (sixth in Big 12) and No. 32 on the bars (second in Big 12) after a record-breaking season. She was most recently named the South Central Regional Gymnast of the Year and co-Big 12 Gymnast of the Year. She took this year's Big 12 all-around, vault and beam titles two weeks ago after claiming ten all-around titles on the year, the most of any Missouri gymnast, in addition to 20 individual event titles.
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Perry is the 29th-best gymnast in the country and third in Big 12. She is No. 14 on floor nationally and second in Big 12, where she averages a 9.875, and No. 65 nationally and eighth in the Big 12 on vault and beam. She most recently took the Big 12 floor crown for the second year in a row. Her best showing at the NCAA Championships came in her freshman campaign, when she notched 14th place in the all-around and just missed All-American status with a ninth place finish on beam. She also finished in 17th place on floor with a score of 9.825.
Tickets to the 2009 NCAA Championships are available from the Nebraska athletic department. Fans can call 1-800-8BIGRED or visit http://www.huskers.com//fls/100/ncaa2009gym/tickets.htm for more information.
Stay with mutigers.com for news and updates on Shire's and Perry's trips to national competition next weekend.
