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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12 --
Seattle Pacific at Boise State Tri Meet (with Sacramento State)
Taco Bell Arena • Boise, Idaho • 6:00 p.m. PDT (7 pm MDT)
Live webcast and stats feed at: www.BroncoSports.com

The long and winding road trip continues for the Seattle Pacific women's gymnastics team. The Falcons visit Boise, Idaho on Friday, Feb. 12 for a tri-meet against Boise State and Sacramento State. The competition begins at 6 p.m. Pacific Time (7 p.m. Mountain) at Taco Bell Arena. For the second straight week, the Falcons will participate in an opponent's “Beauty & the Beast” promotion during which the gymnastics meet runs concurrently with a wrestling match. Friday marks the fourth of eight straight road meets for SPU, which does not compete at home again until a March 19 dual meet with Washington in Brougham Pavilion. Next week the Falcons travel to Colorado for a pair of meets, Feb. 19 and 20.

Follow the Action
Falcons fans can follow Friday's action via an internet webcast and LiveStats feed by clicking the “Multimedia” tab at:  www.BroncoSports.com

Tri-Meet Field
Host Boise State and Sacramento State are NCAA Division I competitors. The Broncos are ranked No. 31 nationally with a high score of 194.200 while No. 43 Sacramento has a best mark of 193.225. Division II SPU ranks 59th among all collegiate competitors and No. 7 among teams that will vie for the USA Gymnastics collegiate title.

Recent Results
Anissa Madrid placed third in the beam and all-around competitions on Feb. 5, helping Seattle Pacific post a season-best team score of 188.550 to finish second behind host UC Davis (194.250). Madrid accumulated 38.00 points, including a 9.650 on beam. Both of those marks were the peak performances this season for a Falcons gymnast. Madrid also had a season-best 9.55 on floor. SPU's Kaysha Heck registered her season-high score of 9.70 on bars to place third. Sherah Veron was the Falcons' top vaulter with a fourth-place score of 9.70 while Brittany Malone was the team's top floor finisher, placing sixth with a mark of 9.625. For the second straight week, SPU's Samantha Taylor compiled a career-best all-around total. Her fourth-place score of 37.975 included a sixth-place mark bars mark of 9.675 and a season-high 9.575 beam effort.

Targeting Texas
The season started in Seattle. The Falcons hope it ends in Denton, Texas. That's the site of the 2010 USGA Collegiate Championships, April 15-17. The SPU gymnastics squad competed in 27 consecutive national championship meets before falling just short of a team-qualifying berth in 2009. They would like to start the streak up again.

Strenuous Schedule
Seattle Pacific is an NCAA Division II member that competes alongside some Division I and II foes for the USA Gymnastics (USAG) Collegiate championship. The Falcons entire regular-season schedule is comprised of NCAA Division I opposition.

Gym Shorts
The Falcons combined to record their season-best team scores in two events at UC Davis (Feb. 5), including a 46.800 on beam. The bars score of 48.025 was their best point total in any event this season ... Anissa Madrid (38.00) and Samantha Taylor (37.975) posted the team's top-two all-around marks this season in Friday's meet at UC Davis.

Proud History
While the dictionary definition of “consistency” makes no mention of gymnastics or Seattle Pacific University, the Falcons certainly have defined the word. 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, SPU has made the kind of lasting impression that few programs anywhere can match. The Falcons earned invitations to 27 consecutive championship meets (1982-2008) before narrowly missing a qualifying berth last season. Debbie Halle, then a freshman in the fledgling Falcon program, set the tone in 1974 by winning the uneven bars championship at the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) nationals. From that moment, Seattle Pacific gymnasts have captured 22 national crowns and collected 147 All-America awards.

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, 36 years 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 35th year as head coach, Tindall's SPU teams have won three national championships. Falcon athletes garnered 22 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 Seattle Pacific gym, Tindall is a charter member of the Falcon Legends Hall of Fame. Tindall also operates the Falcon Gymnastics Center for local youths.

Season Preview
Youth still dominates the roster, but experience is in greater supply for the 2010 edition of Seattle Pacific gymnastics. The team is built around a 10-gymnast sophomore class that saw a great deal of competition last year in their collegiate debuts. The Falcons have just five juniors and no seniors. Laurel Tindall, in her 35th season as SPU's coach, is optimistic. “We've got some great talent. Our top three are reasonably strong on each event, it's just numbers four, five and six that we need to solidify.” The biggest task will be replacing uneven bars national champion Brianna Schwartz, SPU's top all-arounder in 2009. Helping fill that void is the full-time return of junior Anissa Madrid, who missed all but the final meet last year. Madrid posted the team's best all-around score (38.825) in 2008. “She's easily capable of winning nationals. She has all of the ingredients,” says Tindall. Also expected to compete as an all-arounder is incoming freshman Stephanie Wagner a talented gymnast from Estacada, Ore. The Falcons' only other newcomer is freshman Ami Khauv, a vault and beam specialist from Monticello, Minn. SPU will rely on a bevy of event specialists in its pursuit of its 28th championship meet berth in the last 29 years. A trio of standouts highlights the vault corps in Sherah Veron, Lari Wilson and Madrid. The bars lineup features sophomore Kaysha Heck, the bronze medalist at the 2009 USAG meet. Madrid and Wagner project as the best beam and floor performers. Bri Steigauf could again top the floor field when she returns from an ankle injury.

Home Sweet Home
The Falcons host three home meets at Brougham Pavilion on the Seattle Pacific campus, including the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Championship on March 27 at 6 p.m. The arena is located at the corner of Third Avenue West and Nickerson Street (3414 Third Ave. W, Seattle, WA, 98119). Brougham has hosted the USAG national championship meet three times, most recently in 2007 when the Falcons finished second.