© NCAA

The nation’s best female collegiate gymnasts begin completion today for national NCAA titles at the 2010 NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships, April 22-24 at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center on the University of Florida campus in Gainesville. The field of 12 teams and 19 individual athletes advanced from six NCAA Regional Championships. Competition begins at 1 p.m. ET, and fans can watch it live online at NCAA TV or follow live scoring at ncaa.com.

The 12 schools vying for the coveted team title are the University of Alabama, University of Arkansas, University of California-Los Angeles, University of Florida, Louisiana State University, University of Michigan, University of Missouri, University of Nebraska, University of Oklahoma, Oregon State University, Stanford University, or University of Utah. 2009’s defending team and all-around champions are not in the field: the University of Georgia did not advance from the Regionals, and Georgia’s Courtney Kupets graduated last year.

The top five individual all-around gymnasts from the 2010 Regional Championships are UCLA’s Vanessa Zamarripa, Missouri’s Sarah Shire, LSU’s Susan Jackson, Arkansas’ Casey Jo Magee, and Penn State’s Brandi Personett. Jackson is a former vault champion and Georgia’s Courtney McCool, won the 2008 floor exercise title.

Fifteen former U.S. Senior Women’s National Team members will compete today in team semifinal and all-around competition, including two 2004 Olympic team members, Olympic team silver-medalist Courtney McCool of the University of Georgia and Olympic alternate Allyse Ishino of Stanford University. The field also features four world team members: 2003 World team and uneven bars gold-medalist Hollie Vise of the University of Oklahoma, 2006 World team silver-medalists Natasha Kelley of Oklahoma and Ashley Priess of the University of Alabama, and 2006 world alternate Jacquelyn Johnson of the University of Utah.

Other former senior national team members are: Annie DiLuzio, Utah; Kayla Hoffman, Alabama; Carly Janiga, Stanford; Susan Jackson, Louisiana State University; Brittani McCullough, University of California-Los Angeles; Kassi Price, Alabama; Sarah Shire, University of Missouri; Geralen Stack-Eaton, Alabama; and Randi Stageberg, University of Florida.

Team semifinal and all-around competition at the 2010 NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships will be conducted in two sessions on Thursday, April 22 at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. ET. Here are the semifinal matchups with seeds (based on National Qualifying Score):

Session 1: Thursday, April 22, 1 p.m. ET
1. University of California-Los Angeles
4. University of Oklahoma
5. University of Utah
8. Oregon State University
9. Louisiana State University
12. University of Nebraska

Session 2: Thursday, April 22, 7 p.m. ET
2. University of Florida
3. University of Alabama
6. Stanford University
7. University of Arkansas
10. University of Missouri
11. University of Michigan

The all-around gymnast with the top score from both sessions on Thursday will win the all-around title. The top three teams from each semifinal will advance to the Super Six team finals on Friday, April 23, at 6 p.m., which will air tape-delayed on CBS, Sat., May 8 at 2 p.m. ET. The top four individuals from each session in each event (plus ties) from Thursday’s sessions will compete in the individual-event competition Saturday, April 24, at 6 p.m.

The top two teams and the top two all-around competitors from each Regional received automatic berths to the national championships. In addition, the event winners at each Regional Championship advanced to the national championships (in their specific event) if they were not part of a qualifying team or the all-around qualifiers.

The process for determining rotation pairings for day one sessions of the NCAA Women’s Championships team competition is based on a National Qualifying Score (NQS) calculated by adding the Regional Qualifying Score (RQS) to the score achieved at regional competition. Teams are ranked based on the NQS from 1 to 12. Teams 1, 4, 5, 8, 9 and 12 were placed in Group A; and teams 2, 3, 6, 7, 10 and 11 placed in Group B. The host team and its corresponding group will compete in the second session.

A list of team, all-around, and individual event qualifiers for the 2010 women’s nationals are listed below.

In the 2009 championships, the Georgia Bulldogs won their fifth consecutive NCAA women’s team title with an overall score of 197.825. The Bulldogs have won the title a record 10 times in 26 championship appearances, followed by Utah with nine titles. Alabama finished second at the 2009 championships with a score of 197.575, followed by Utah in third (197.425), Florida in fourth (196.725), Arkansas in fifth (196.475) and LSU in sixth (196.375).

For live scoring, video streaming, tickets and more information for the NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships, go to www.NCAA.com. The information in this release was provided by the NCAA.

Field for the 2010 Women’s NCAA National Gymnastics Championships

Team qualifiers
Team Regional Regional Score NQS
University of California-Los Angeles Los Angeles 197.825 394.885
University of Florida Salt Lake City, Utah 197.675 394.725
University of Alabama Lexington, Ky. 197.400 394.650
University of Oklahoma University Park, Pa. 197.250 394.420
University of Utah Salt Lake City 196.900 393.385
Stanford University Morgantown, W.Va. 196.775 393.375
University of Arkansas Los Angeles 196.675 393.185
Oregon State University Columbia, Mo. 196.275 392.820
Louisiana State University University Park 196.400 392.815
University of Missouri Columbia 196.500 392.585
University of Michigan Morgantown 195.800 392.400
University of Nebraska Lexington 195.875 392.230
All-around Qualifiers
Qualifier Team Regional Regional Score
Brandi Personett Pennsylvania State University University Park 39.5500
Kelley Hennigan University of Denver Salt Lake City 39.3000
Taylor Seaman North Carolina State University Morgantown 39.3000
Rebecca Simbhudas University of Iowa Columbia 39.2500
Elise Wheeler University of Southern Utah Morgantown 39.2500
Sarah Schmidt University of Illinois Lexington 39.2250
Brianna Artemev University of Denver Salt Lake City 39.2000
Sharaya Musser Penn State University University Park 39.2000
Nicole Curler Michigan State University Lexington 39.1750
Michelle Browning Iowa State University Los Angeles 39.1500
Alexis Russell University of Minnesota Columbia 39.1000
Mary Atkinson Arizona State University Los Angeles 39.0750
Individual Event Qualifiers
Qualifiers Event Team Regional Regional Score
Allison Buckley Vault University of Illinois Lexington 9.9000
Rachel Inniss Floor Auburn University Columbia 9.9000
Kristen Linton Floor University of Washington Salt Lake City 9.9000
Courtney McCool Beam, Floor University of Georgia Columbia 9.9000
Hannah Redmon Vault, Floor Boise State University Salt Lake City 9.9000
Whitney Rose Vault University of Kentucky Lexington 9.9000
Samantha Walior Floor University of Washington Salt Lake City 9.9000