• Complete Release (pdf)    |    • Maria Hundley feature story
     • VIDEO: Kristi  Hayashida
     
USA GYMNASTICS WOMEN'S COLLEGIATE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Hyland Arena / St. Charles, Missouri (hosted by Lindenwood University)
 
FRIDAY, APRIL 8 –
Team Semifinal Session 1 & All-Around Final, 12:00 p.m. PDT (2 p.m. CDT)

SATURDAY, APRIL 9 –
Team Final, 5:00 p.m. PDT (7 p.m. CDT)

SUNDAY, APRIL 10 –
Individual Event Finals, 11:00 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. CDT)
 
• Webcast & Live Scoring Links:
http://lindenwoodlions.com/sports/2015/9/1/GYM_0901153631.aspx

 

Senior Maria Hundley seeks to add to her school-record total of five individual event national championships and the Seattle Pacific gymnasts challenge for a fourth team title this weekend at the USAG Collegiate Championships in St. Charles, Mo. The three-day meet that determines the team and individual national champions runs from Friday through Sunday, April 8-10, at Hyland Arena on the Lindenwood campus. The Falcons are competing at nationals for the 34th time in the last 35 years. They were the team champions in 1986, 1992 and 1997. Hundley won the uneven bars and balance beam titles last year after capturing the vault, bars and beam crowns in 2014.
 
Magnificent Maria
Senior Maria Hundley is already SPU's most decorated gymnast and she looks to do the same among all-time NCAA Division II/USAG competitors. She has won five USAG Collegiate national championships (2014-vault, bars, beam; 2015-bars, beam), just one short of the all-time record of six (see lists on page 5). Hundley added the all-around to her repertoire this season and broke the 11-year-old school record with a 39.350 performance on March 7. The all-time record for individual national titles, including all-around, is seven. The SPU-record vault score of 9.875 has been achieved nine times and Hundley accounted for four of those. She won 10 event titles in meets this season, all of them against Division I opponents, and has two all-around victories. Hundley is the USAG's top-ranked vaulter and posted the team's top score in every meet on that apparatus. She ranks No. 2 among USAG performers in the all-around and No. 4 on bars. Hundley competed at the NCAA Division I regional on April 2 in front of 14,000 fans in Salt Lake City and placed ninth in the all-around (39.025, 9.775-V,UB, BB; 9.70-FX).


 
USAG Format
Eight teams and 35 individual qualifiers from across the country will contend for team, all-around and individual national titles. The team semifinals and all-around finals will be conducted in two separate sessions, taking place on Friday, April 8 at Hyland Arena on the Lindenwood University campus near St. Louis. The four-team finals are set for Saturday, April 9 at 5 p.m. PDT. Friday's top-five scoring gymnasts in every event, including ties, from each team session will qualify for the individual event finals that will be contested on Sunday, April 10. The event finals start at 11 a.m. PDT.
 
The Field
Fourth-seeded SPU will participate in the first session at 12 p.m. Pacific Time (2 p.m. Central) and open the meet on the vault. Also in the opening group will be top seed Bridgeport, No. 5 Cornell and No. 8 Air Force. The second session starts at 5 p.m. PDT. Participants include second-seeded Lindenwood, the host and defending national champion. Also competing in the late session are No. 3 Brown, No. 6 Texas Woman's University and No. 7 Yale. The two highest-scoring schools from each preliminary quartet advance to the four-team finals on Saturday, April 9 at 5 p.m. PDT.

 
USAG History
The Falcons have won three national gymnastics team championships. They captured the 1986 NCAA Division II crown and the 1992 and 1997 titles after USA Gymnastics became the sponsor. The collegiate championships include NCAA Division II members and Division I schools that choose to adhere to the limit of 7-1/2 scholarships. This year's USAG field features four Division I schools and four Division II entries. Seattle Pacific placed among the top-four teams in 21 of the last 31 national meets.

 

Gym Shorts
The Falcons compiled a season-high 193.950 on March 12 at Washington, the seventh-highest team score in school history ... Three Falcons combined for 15 event wins this year: Maria Hundley (10), Ariana Harger (3) and Hayashida (2) ... In addition, Hundley and Harger each have two all-around titles to their credit in 2016 ... SPU surpassed 193 points in each of its last four meets ... Nine current gymnasts were in the SPU lineup at the 2015 USAG championships ... Six Falcons earned All-America acclaim in eight categories at the 2015 USAG championships, including returnees Maria Hundley (V, UB, BB), Kristi Hayashida (BB), Tracie Villanueva (UB) and Ariana Harger (FX) ... This is the 43rd season of intercollegiate gymnastics competition at Seattle Pacific and the 41st with Laurel Tindall as the coach.
 
Proud History
From the very first meet way back in 1974 to a run of 20 consecutive top-four finishes at nationals, including championships in 1986, 1992 and 1997, Seattle Pacific has made the kind of lasting impression that few programs anywhere can match. The Falcons earned invitations to 34 of the last 35 championship meets (1982-2008, 2010-2016). They narrowly missed a qualifying berth in 2009. SPU gymnasts have won 28 national individual crowns and collected 187 All-America awards. The Falcons finished third at the last two USAG Collegiate Championships.
 
Home Sweet Brougham
The Falcons hosted four home meets at Brougham Pavilion on the Seattle Pacific campus (3414 Third Ave. W, Seattle, WA, 98119). Brougham has hosted the national championship meet three times, most recently in 2007 when the Falcons finished second. The USAG Collegiate Championships return to Brougham on April 7-9, 2017.
 
Coach Tindall
Laurel Tindall (Anderson) was there the very first time a group of Seattle Pacific gymnasts marched onto the competition floor in 1974. Now, four decades later, she still is an integral part of a program that she helped nurture and lead to a prominent spot on the national scene since taking the coaching reigns in 1976. Whether as an athlete, coach or international-level judge, Tindall has spent a lot of time at the top of the gymnastics world. As she enters her 41st year as head coach, Tindall's SPU teams have won three national championships (1997, 1992, 1986). Falcon athletes garnered 28 national crowns, one of which she earned on the vault in 1975. Tindall has been named the national Coach of the Year four times, most recently in 2003. And, in a tribute to all of her accomplishments in the SPU gym, Tindall was a charter member of the Falcon Legends Hall of Fame.