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UNC’S COURTNEY BUMPERS HIGHLIGHTS EAGL POSTSEASON AWARDS AS

GYMNAST OF THE YEAR AND OUTSTANDING SENIOR GYMNAST

PISCATAWAY, N.J. (March 24, 2006) – North Carolina senior gymnast Courtney Bumpers

highlighted the 2006 East Atlantic Gymnastics League (EAGL) Awards Dinner, held Friday evening at

the Embassy Suites Hotel in Piscataway, N.J.

Bumpers (Stone Mountain, Ga.) won two postseason awards, the EAGL Gymnast of the Year and

Outstanding Senior Gymnast, and was named first team all-EAGL in all four events as well as the allaround.

Also honored among the four special postseason awards were Rutgers junior Beth Fittery (Denver,

Pa.) as EAGL Scholar-Athlete of the Year and West Virginia freshman Mehgan Morris (Belle,

W.Va.) as EAGL Rookie of the Year.

The EAGL Awards Dinner precedes the 11th-annual EAGL Championship meet, which will be held

Saturday, March 25, at Rutgers University’s Louis Brown Athletic Center beginning at 6 p.m.

Bumpers, the top-ranked all-around gymnast in the EAGL and the 16th-rated all-arounder in the

NCAA, earned gymnast of the year laurels for the second time in her career after taking home the

honors in 2004. This is the third year that a UNC gymnast has won the award as Brooke Wilson won it

in 2000.

This also marks the second straight year that a North Carolina won Outstanding Senior Gymnast and

the third overall (Olivia Trusty 2005, Wilson 2000).

Bumpers leads the league on the floor exercise and the balance beam and ranks second on the vault.

Her first-team selection on vault, beam and floor are the fourth of her career, while her all-around firstteam

status is the third and the uneven bars first-team nod is the first of year career.

Fittery, a junior psychology major, becomes the first Rutgers gymnast to win any of the four special

postseason EAGL awards. As the Scarlet Knights top all-around competitor and the team MVP for the

past two seasons, Fittery maintains a cumulative grade point average of 3.919 as well as a 4.0 for the

spring semester.

Morris, the second West Virginia gymnast ever to win the Rookie of the Year award joining junior teammate Janáe

Cox (Otisco, Ind.), is the EAGL’s top gymnast on the uneven bars and ranks 20th in the NCAA. Morris’ freshman

campaign includes six wins on bars and four scores of at least 9.9. Overall, she has placed in the top two in 10 of her

team’s 11 meets this year. Morris is also the league’s fifth-rated gymnast on the floor having tumbled two 9.9s and

one win.

Cox and Bumpers are the only two gymnasts to draw first-team recognition in all four events and the all-around. Cox

earned her third first-team pick on beam, floor and in the all-around, while her vault and bars first-team plaudits are

the second of her career.

New Hampshire senior Amanda Hall (Bremerton, Wash.), the 2005 gymnast of the year, earned her third career

first-team all-EAGL selection in the all-around as did Maryland senior Rachel Martinez (Massapequa, N.Y.) and

North Carolina senior Christine Robella (Alexandria, Va.). North Carolina State senior Kylah Bachman (York,

Pa.) and Pittsburgh junior Andrea Arlotta (Cincinnati, Ohio) made their debut as first-team all-EAGL all-arounders.

Hall (vault) and Martinez (floor) join Bumpers (vault, beam, floor) as the three EAGL gymnast who have attained first

team status on their respective events for all four years.

2006 EAST ATLANTIC GYMNASTICS LEAGUE POSTSEASON AWARDS

GYMNAST OF THE YEAR: Courtney Bumpers, North Carolina

OUTSTANDING SENIOR GYMNAST: Courtney Bumpers, North Carolina

SCHOLAR-ATHLETE OF THE YEAR: Beth Fittery, Rutgers

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Mehgan Morris, West Virginia

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