Thursday, April 18, 2024

Four MSU gymnasts preparing for NCAA Regionals, gunning for NCAA Championships

March 22, 2017
Junior Hailee Westney competes in the bar event during the meet against Bowling Green on March 5, 2017 at Jenison Field House. The Spartans defeated the Bowling Green, 195.900-193.600.
Junior Hailee Westney competes in the bar event during the meet against Bowling Green on March 5, 2017 at Jenison Field House. The Spartans defeated the Bowling Green, 195.900-193.600. —

As the season nears a close for the MSU gymnastics team, four Spartans — seniors Nicola Deans, Elena Lagoski and Kira Frederick along with junior Hailee Westney — qualified for the NCAA Regionals and are vying to advance to the NCAA Championships.

Deans will compete in the all-around competition and Lagoski and Frederick will represent the Spartans in the floor exercises, while Westney will compete on the uneven bars.

Junior Lindsey Lemke, who has won two bar titles this season, was also selected as an alternate for the bars.

Lagoski will make her fourth consecutive appearance at Regionals and second as an individual. Deans, Frederick and Westney will head to Regionals for the third time in their careers after competing as a team in each of the last two seasons.

All four gymnasts were named to the Big Ten Championship team last weekend. Deans, Frederick and Westney earned conference titles on the floor with individual scores of 9.925.

Deans, who set career highs on the vault, floor and all-around competition in her senior year, has won five all-around, five vault and four floor titles this season. She is the 12th best all-around gymnast in the Big Ten with a regional qualifying score, or RQS, of 39.175.

Frederick, who entered the season as one of the conference's "Gymnasts to Watch," has secured four event titles this season and owns an RQS of 9.880, which is tied for No. 12 in the Big Ten.

A 5-foot-1 senior, Lagoski owns 22 career individual event titles with 19 coming on the floor. A two-time All-Big Ten selection, Lagoski owns a career-high 9.950 score on the floor and holds five of the top 15 individual floor scores in the program's record book.

Westney enters Regionals with four titles on the bars this season, including a career-high score of 9.900. Her 9.860 RQS score is tied for No. 10 in the Big Ten.

The two top all-around competitors who are not on a team that advances in Regionals will receive an automatic berth in the NCAA Championships on April 14 and 15. Event winners at each regional site will also advance to the national championships in their respective event as long as they are not a member of a qualifying team or all-around qualifier.

The regional meet is slated to commence at 4 p.m. on April 1 in Champaign, Ill.

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