NC State Women's Gymnastics Team Upsets Nebraska.

I was at the NCAA gymnastics meet held at Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, NC, on the North Carolina State University campus where the home-team Wolfpack upset tenth ranked Nebraska. The University of North Carolina was also at the meet, and came in third though Christine Nguyen (pictured) won the all-around competition.

According to the Wolfpacks' gymnastics team web site, there were 3,721 fans on-hand to witness the most impressive win in the program's history (It should be noted that the Wolfpack gymnast pictured here who we believe to be Ashley Shepard was on last year's team).

The Wolfpacks' coach Mark Stevenson said he was very pleased with his team's performance.

"I'm really excited about how the meet turned out," Stevenson said. "We beat Nebraska for the first time ever and they are a top ten team."

The Wolfpack scored a seson best 9.875 as freshman Rachel Fincham posted that same score on the bars event. The 'Pack were also helped out with strong performances from Jess Panza, Brooke Barr and Becca Teich. Barr and Teich finished second and third respectively in the all-around competition behind Nguyen.

As for the visiting Cornhuskers (we tried to find an image of a gymnast, but alas we had to settle for one of the team's mascots!), coach Dan Kendig told Brendan Carl of "The Daily Nebraskan" that he gave his team a pep talk going into the fourth rotation when they realized they were down to the Wolfpack by a considerable margin.

But, in the end, it simply wasn't enough to overcome.

"I wish we had a better showing, but we will live to see a better day," Kendig told "The Daily Nebraskan."

For the 'Huskers, senior Kylie Stone gave a good performance and she told the newspaper that her team stayed tough in spite of a poor balance beam performance.

As for the Tarheels, the loss featured many positives as Nguyen won her fourth all-around title which prompted her to being named EAGL (east coast collegiate gymnastics conference) Gymnast of the Week as she score an impressive 39.375 in Raleigh.

'Heels coach Derek Galvin told the UNC women's gymnastic's team's web site that he was delighted with ther performances from his team which included a 9.800 on the balance beam from stand-out gymnast Kara Wright.

"Going into this week our focus was on bringing our beam routines up to the level of the other events," Galvin said. "We did that and we surpassed them."

The Wolfpack stay in Raleigh to face the always tough Pitt Panthers on Saturday night. Fans who bring in two books can get in for free as part of a literacy program that the team is sponsoring.