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

Sports Desk: Princeton Tigers Go to Lynchburg and Win

Earlier in the season my alma mater Radford University, a Big South school, faced the Cornell Bears, an Ivy League team, and won. But, given that Big South schools stretch from Lexington, Va. (VMI) to Charleston, SC, (Charleston Southern), and Ivy League are from the northeast, the two conferences don't play with each other that often.

But, on Saturday, the Princeton Tigers in their last game before the start of conference play, headed down to Lynchburg, Va., to face the Liberty Flames on Saturday in the first meeting in men's basketball between the two schools.

And, it was Princeton (11-2), a team which traveled from New Jersey, which prevailed with an 80-74 win that was propelled by T.J. Bray (pictured) who almost matched his career-high with 24 points and his teammate Ben Hazel who added 18 points. For Liberty, John Caleb Saunders scored 25 points.

SIDEBAR: There was a shocking upset in Winston-Salem, NC, on Sunday night, as the home court Wake Forest Demon Deacons shocked the University of North Carolina Tar Heels, ranked 19th in the country at the time, 73-67.

The win was the first for Wake Forest over UNC since 2001 in a series that the Tar Heels have dominated in more recent years. Senior Travis McKie from Richmond, Va., lead the home team in scoring with 16 points, and he shot 7 for 11 from the floor.

SIDEBAR 2: Well, when the West Virginia Mountaineers joined the BIG 12, geographic rivalries went out the window as the closest conference school to Morgantown, WVa., is (we believe) Iowa State, located in Ames, Iowa.

Tonight, WVU traveled even farther away as they headed to Lubbock, Tex., and got an 89-86 (OT) win over the Texas Tech Red Raiders.

Juwan Staten lead WVU in scoring with 25 points, and Terry Henderson hit a crucial three-pointer with :18 left to play in regulation.

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.


http://www.wvusports.com

http://www.soonersports.com

Things We Learned on the Internet Tonight_ What is an Axehole??

We learned tonight from The Urban Dictionary that an axehole is: A person who uses an obscene amount of Axe body spray.

Here were some things we found out through Twitter, apparently folks in the urban parts of North Carolina are dealing with major rainstorms:

@WXII (tv station in Winston-Salem, NC): Several thunderstorms warning for Davidson and Randolph County in NC until 9:15 p.m.

@DurhamBulls (minor league team in Durham, NC, image of mascot in the middle): "Thanks to everyone who's sticking with us through this delay. Tarp still on field, but we expect to play!

@WVUgymnastics: "Morgantown Magazine is thrilled that Morgantown tops Forbes list of Best Small Cities! (Morgantown, West Virginia, is where West Virginia University is).

@SunDC (this will be helpful for Muslims in the DC-area celebrating Ramadan, which makes me wonder what my late Turkish father would make of me eating turkey bacon; since we couldn't find a Washington, DC, sunset, we settled with an image of nearby Annapolis, Maryland): "Sunset 8:29 p.m. Sunset tommorow 8:26 p.m."

@VisitMaine: "Tomorrow, Sunday, July 22 is the last day of the Yarmouth Clam Festival! Don't miss it."

@TVGMDebra: "Martha Stewart on whether she's ever had fast food: I've eaten one Burger King, two McDonald's & today I ate an In-and-Out-Burger."

http://www.urbandictionary.com

http://www.marthastewart.com

http://www.visitmaine.com

http://www.mdisfun.org

http://www.twitter.com/DurhamBulls

http://www.wvusports.com

http://www.muslimmatters.org

Quote of the Day/Week-Mary Lou Retton

Today, we continue quoting American athletes who won either gold or silver medals at the Summer Olympics with a quip from Mary Lou Retton, 44, whose image with a red, white and blue leotard is making its way back to Wheaties cereal boxes.

We will be quoting international athletes, including perhaps Nadia Comaneci of Romania, who was a major influence on Retton, who won both team and individual gold medals at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

Retton is from Fairmont, West Virginia, and she is a member of the President's Council on Physical Fitness, which is slightly ironic as Retton is a Republican as she attended the 2004 Republican convention.

Gymnasts of today have also been influenced by Retton as she developed 'the Retton flip' move on bars.

Here is her quote:

"If I had a bad performance in a particular leotard, I threw it in the trash."

SIDEBAR: People in Retton's home state of West Virginia are likely not to happy today as West Virginia University lost to Gonzaga in the NCAA tournament yesterday.

I was also disappointed to see Harvard lose to Vanderbilt 79-70 though President Barack Obama, a graduate of Harvard, said he had to reluctantly pick Vandy since that school has just won the SEC Tournament.

But, there is happy basketball news for my home state of Virginia because Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) 'upset' Wichita State 62-59 in Portland, Oregon, in the NCAA tournament last night.

UPDATE: When we posted this entry earlier in the day, we did not know the first name of Mary Lou Retton's sister who was a great gymnast in her own right at West Virginia University. Her name is Shari Retton.

As for the current Mountaineers gymnastics team, they head to Baton Rouge, La., tonight for a meet with SEC power LSU. For WVU, current gymnast Kaylyn Milick was named EAGL Conference Gymnast of the week. The Mountaineers also have an exceptional, nationally-ranked gymnast in Hope Sloanhaffer.

My NCAA Brackets....with a Twist

For many years, we have wanted to fill out the NCAA brackets simply based on the teams we liked best, or the teams that we would like to see in the Final Four.

So, this year, I decided to make a 'real bracket,' in which top-seed Syracuse prevails over the 16-seed underdog of underdogs, the UNC-Asheville Bulldogs from the Big South Conference, and one in which the Bulldogs pull the college basketball upset of the century.

There is a dose of reality in my 'fantasy bracket' as I just picked the Bulldogs as the lone 16-seed to knock off a Goliath. In addition, I have the 15-ssed Norfolk State beating the two-seed Missouri Tigers.

Thus, when all is said and done, my Elite 8 comes down to the unlikely match-up of ten-seed West Virginia, with Turkish player Deniz Kilicli, and 12-seed Harvard with Brandyn Curry from Huntersville, NC, in the east region. In the midwest, my dream match-up is not too implausible as it has 3-seed Georgetown taking on the top-seed UNC Tarheels (in the 'real version' two-seed Kansas plays North Carolina).

In the south region, there is a very realistic match-up between one-seed Kentucky and two-seed Duke. But, in the west, we have another fantasy match-up between ten-seed Virginia and 13-seed Davidson, a team that did in fact shock the world and make the Elite 8 a few years ago.

Thus, the 'dream Final Four' pits Harvard against Georgetown, and Duke against UVA. And, the final comes down to Harvard and UVA, with the Ivy Leaguers from Cambridge, Mass., winning it all.

Of course, it would be fittingly ironic if my fantasy bracket turns out to be more true than my 'real one!'

SIDEBAR: A fair number of the 68 teams in the NCAA tournament (actually as of writing, there are 66 remaining), have competitive teams in other sports. In wrestling, from the schools in the field, Ohio State, Misouri, Michigan, Lehigh, UVA and Purdue are all nationally-ranked.

In men's lacrosse, UVA, Loyola (Md), Syracuse, Notre Dame, UNC, Lehigh, Duke and Georgetown are all ranked.

Similarly, in women's lacrosse, UNC, Duke, Florida, Syracuse, Vanderbilt, UVA, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Georgetown and Loyola (Md.) have teams ranked in the top 20.

Road Trips USA (4 of 20) West Virginia and Georgia

Well, for starters, we hope our image of West Virginia University gymnast Hope Sloanhoffer, a freshman from Cornwall, NY, was posted correctly. Secondly, we hope our friends in Portland, Oregon, are enjoying their lunch hour and telling everyone they know about our blog.

Today, we look at the distance between Black Bear Burritos in Morgantown, WVa, and the very famous/hip/greasy diner The Varsity in Athens, Ga., since WVU will be traveling to the University of Georgia this weekend for a regional meet along with UCLA, Maryland, North Carolina State, LSU and the host Gymdawgs.

Is the distance:

A) 9 hours even

B) 9 hours, 20 minutes

C) 9 hours, 40 minutes

D) 10 hours, 5 minutes

Alas, both towns have had problems with their historic old movie cinemas. The Warner Theatre in Morgantown closed in September, and the Georgia Theatre in Athens had a fire in 2009, but we gather they are in the process of renovating that building.

Getting Ready for the Trip of a Lifetime!

I must say at the age of 40 there are some things I never thought I would ever do in my life, and White Water Rafting in the New River of West Virginia, was one of them!

When my good friend Nishan Shakazi, a Pakistani geology instructor at Wytheville Community College in Wytheville, Va., first asked me about the proposed trip plan three weeks ago, I was hesitant for several reasons.

First, it is the weekend of the Final Four, which includes a game between West Virginia University and Duke, and I really enjoy sitting at home and being a couch potato this time of the year.

Second, it is Easter weekend, and even though I'm not a religious person, my mom likes to take me up to Mountain Lake, where "Dirty Dancing" was filmed, in southwestern Virginia for brunch there during Easter weekend. They have such great food there!

But, as you get older, you realize life is passing you by. I will probably never to get to date a gorgeous young woman like Jennifer Love Hewitt, travel to an exotic place like Zimbabwe for a safari trip or run against Cong. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va) in my home district of southwestern Virginia (the fact that I almost went to Cuba with a group of socialists while attending Radford University would in itself doom my campaign even though I consider myself a centrist Democrat today.)

So, why not go to West Virginia and have a great time.

What's the worst thing that could happen to me.........besides drowning?!

Happy St.Patrick's Day!

It is indeed St. Patrick's Day, and Notre Dame fans are assuredly delighted their team is in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament though I think they will get whacked by Old Dominion in the first round!

In other sports matters, we reported last week that the University of North Carolina had a home women's gymnastics meet against West Virginia. The visiting Mountaineers narrowly won the meet in Chapel Hill, NC, thanks to an outstanding performance from Amy Bieski, who was just named EAGL Conference Gymnast of the Week. Bieski also won the all-around competition.

But, several Tarheel gymnasts had solid performances, including Christine Nguyen who was in a four-way tie with Bieski and two other gymnasts for first place on vault. Nguyen also won the uneven bars. Her Tarheel teammate Kara Wright was tied for Nguyen for first place in the floor competition.

If one is in Chapel Hill today, they may want to stop by the W.B. Yeats Irish Pub which will presumably have a green beer on tap for you.

On Friday night, my friends at Tallula's, a Turkish restaurant on Franklin Street, will have a Mediterranean Night starting at 10:30 p.m.

So Much for West Virginia

My friend Haywood Graves of Danville, Va., urged me to create a massive ten NCAA brackets last week.

I decided to do something creative and choose as many champions as I could.

Alas, one of my 8 projected champions- the West Virginia University Mountaineers, who were a six-seed, were bumped by Dayton in the first round.

But, my other 7 teams are alive and well and that's what really counts!