Kentucky Earns NCAA Regional Berth

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- The University of Kentucky gymnastics team earned its 12^th NCAA postseason bid in the last 15 seasons and travels to Louisiana State University as the fourth seed in the six-team Central Regional, Fri., April 7, at 6 p.m. CST.

 The No. 20 Cats (14-12) face off against No. 1 seed Oklahoma, host LSU, Penn State, Michigan State and Ohio State, for a chance to reach their first-ever NCAA Championships. Only the top two teams and two all-around competitors (who are not on an advancing team) will advance to the championship meet, April 20-22 in Corvallis, Ore.

Qualification for regional competition is based on a team's, an all-around competitor's, and an individual event specialist's six best regular-season-meet scores (also called the Regional Qualifying Score or RQS), of which three must be at an away meet. The RQS is computed by eliminating the high score and averaging the remaining five scores.

The top 18 teams, nationally, based on RQS, were selected and paired into the six regions (three per region). Each region site has one team each from the nation's No. 1-6, No. 7-12, and No. 13-18 ranking positions. Alabama, Iowa State, Florida, Oklahoma, Utah and defending national champ Georgia all received No. 1 seeds. The remaining three regional slots were filled from within the region. The all-around competitors and event specialists came from the region as well.

As a program, Kentucky has reached the NCAA Regionals 17 times, including two straight. The Cats’ best regional finish came in 1990 and 1996, when the teams placed third.

For more details regarding dates, times and ticket information, fans should go to ukathletics.com.