College Gymnastics List (3 or 4): EAGL and Big 12 Gymnasts Combined

If one thinks college basketball is confusing with conference realignments, then one should consider some of the things happening with college gymnastics.

For starters, the Big 12 Conference has only ten teams in most sports, and one of those teams is West Virginia University which is quite far away from conference rival Texas Tech. But, WVU has a women's gymnastics teams and Texas Tech doesn't. In fact, there are only three schools in the Big 12 with women's gymnastics programs, Oklahoma, which is a contender for a national championship, and Iowa State.

Then, there is the EAGL Conference which included some ACC schools, some Big East schools, and some Atlantic-10 schools, but next year, EAGL members Rutgers and Maryland are joining the Big 10. West Virginia was also an EAGL member; in fact, the Mountaineers have still won more conference titles than the other schools, before they moved to the Big 12.

So, in this entry, we are combining the two conferences, and if you are reading this entry in 2015, keep these changes in mind.

Without further confusion (we can imagine that blog-readers in Hong Kong are scratching their heads), here is the list:

1) Haley Watts, University of North Carolina. Junior (pictured top)

2) Henrietta Green, Iowa State*. Senior (pictured center)

3) Stephanie Giameo. Maryland^. Junior (pictured bottom)

4) Diahanna Ham. North Carolina State. Senior.

5) Nicolette Swoboda. West Virginia* Freshman.

6) Taylor Spears. Oklahoma*. Senior.

7) Nicole Pearson. Pittsburgh. Sophomore.

8) Alyssa Straub, Rutgers^. Senior

9) Meghan Pflieger. Univ. of New Hampshire. Freshman.

10) Lauren Ross, Towson, Junior.

George Washington University (GWU) is also an EAGL member.

*-Denotes Big 12 schools

^-Denotes schools moving to the Big Ten next year

West Virginia Gymnast WinsBig 12 Conference Honor

Yes, we should point out that we are placing the Tiger mascot for the University of Missouri, which took its up and coming women's gymnastics program from the Big 12 to the SEC as a bit of a joke as conference realignments in college sports have gone quite a bit whacky, which must amuse coaches of Ivy League schools, who will probably never have such concerns.

The Big 12 Conference, which only has three schools with college gymnastics, announced this week that Jaida Lawerence, a freshman from Rocky Hill, Conn., was named BIG 12 Newcomer of the Week.

Lawrence, pictured on top, scored a 9.9 in the vault competition during a home meet vs. EAGL-conference schools Maryland and Rutgers. The Mountaineers had also competed in the EAGL until this year. In fact, the program had the most EAGL titles in the gymnastics-only conference.

The Connecticut freshman also received a  9.725 on bars during the same meet.

The other two Big 12 gymnastics honors for the week went to Taylor Spears, pictured bottom, a junior from Plano, Tex., who is ranked first on the balance beam nationally. Spears had a 9.9 on the beam during a road meet against traditional powerhouse Alabama; the Crimson Tide won that meet by a relatively close 197.725-196.900 score.

Another Sooner Lauren  Alexander, a sophomore from Naperville, Ill., was named Big 12 Specialist of the week for her own 9.9 beam score versus Alabama.


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