After a first place performance at the Mountain Rim Conference Championships, the Denver women’s gymnastics team is preparing for Regionals on April 5.
Held at the University of Washington in Seattle, the Pioneers will face Washington, Nebraska, Alabama and a familiar opponent, Boise State, in their 16th consecutive NCAA regional event. The first and second placing teams will then travel to the NCAA National Championships in Birmingham, Ala. on April 18.
“Having our last home meet in Magness Arena prepared us well for Conference, and I hope Conference has prepared us well for Regionals,” said Head Coach Melissa Kutcher-Rinehart.
Denver posted their high score for the season, 196.725, in Magness Arena on Senior Night to defeat Boise State and Iowa State in front of a packed crowd.
“I am very proud of my student athletes. They care about their athletics and academics and I am so proud of their work ethic in the gym and in school,” said Kutcher-Rinehart.
The Pioneers will be graduating five seniors this year.
Senior Moriah Martin, an All-American for vault, posted an almost perfect 9.950 at Conference, which helped the Pioneers break DU’s all-time vault record. Martin also competed and represented Denver in the National Championships for vault as an individual last year.
“All of our seniors, Jorie Hall, Moriah Martin, Kaitlin Moorhead, Melodie Pulgarin-Linero and Paige Tollefson, have done a phenomenal job. Their leadership, character, work ethic, commitment and passion has really led the way this season,” said Kutcher-Rinehart.
Being the inaugural season of the Mountain Rim Conference, this was the first ever conference championship. In 2015, this will become a NCAA-sanctioned event that will be hosted by Denver.
At Mountain Rim, the results came down to the Pioneers having a slim .025 lead to clinch the first place title over Boise State. Denver finished the meet with a final score of 196.925, the seventh highest team-score in DU history.
“This was the first ever conference championship,” said Kutcher-Rinehart. “With it being the first year, it was fun to win it and I think that it gave our athletes a lot of confidence in preparing and going into NCAA Regionals.”
In Washington, No. 20 Denver will face top 10 teams, including the University of Alabama, which is currently ranked fourth nationally.
“Regionals is going to be competitive, it’s going to come down to who performs well on that specific night. Certainly, it is our goal to end up in the top two so we can advance as a team to Nationals,” said Kutcher-Rinehart.
The last time Denver made an appearance at Nationals was in 2008.
“We can only focus on the things that we can control,” said Kutcher-Rinehart. “We have really focused this season on training with excellence, training with pride, and really sharpening our gymnastics. I just really want them to go out there and perform the way they’ve been training.”