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SUNDAY, MARCH 8 –
Seattle Pacific at San Jose State (with Utah State), 2:00 p.m. PST
The Event Center / San Jose, Calif.
 
• Webcast: http://www.sjsuspartans.com/videos/
• Live Scoring: http://www.sjsuspartans.com/livestats/w-gym/sjsu_vs_sacst_spu_usu.htm
 
Seattle Pacific is on the road for the rest of the gymnastics season and competes in a San Jose State quad meet on Sunday, March 8 at 2 p.m. in The Event Center. SPU and the host Spartans will be joined by Sacramento State and Utah State. The three NCAA Division I opponents, all of which boast a team score nearing or surpassing 195.00, will be elite competition for the Division II Falcons, whose best mark is 193.050. San Jose and Sacramento are members of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) along with SPU. Next week, the Falcons travel to Corvallis, Oregon for a March 14 quad meet that includes Lindenwood and San Jose State. This is the 42nd season of intercollegiate gymnastics competition at Seattle Pacific and the 40th with Laurel Tindall as the coach.
 
Four-Team Field
Host San Jose State is ranked No. 39 nationally with a high score of 195.150. The Spartans placed third at the 2014 MPSF Championships, the conference meet that saw Sacramento State win and SPU place fourth. Sacramento is ranked No. 48 with a high of 194.925. Utah State is listed 38th in the national rankings. The Aggies defeated SPU 194.725 to 192.075 on Feb. 6 in Logan, Utah. San Jose State features the nation's 36th-ranked all-arounder in Cami Guyer, who boasts a four-event best of 39.250 while Utah State's McKinzey Martinez is 39th at 39.300. Seattle Pacific is listed 59th among all college teams (193.050) in the rankings that are dominated by Division I squads. The Division II Falcons are rated No. 6 among teams that will vie for the USA Gymnastics (USAG) collegiate championship. Eight teams receive USAG nationals invitations.
 


Last Week
Kristi Hayashida scored a career-high 9.85 to win the balance beam and Ariana Harger tied for first on both the vault and floor exercise Friday as SPU rang up a season-high 193.050 points against MPSF rival Air Force at Brougham Pavilion. The visitors squeezed out the dual-meet victory, finishing with 193.125, a scant .075 more than SPU. Hayashida's beam score beat her previous high of 9.825. Harger scored 9.80 on the vault, tying with Air Force's Jessica Wallander for first. The Falcons freshman was part of a three-way tie for first place on the floor with a 9.775. SPU's Maria Hundley and Tracie Villanueva both earned a 9.75 on the bars to tie with Wallander for the top spot.

 

Gym Shorts
Five Falcons posted event wins at least once this year: Kristi Hayashida (3), Ariana Harger (3), Sydney Clark, Maria Hundley and Tracie Villanueva. Clark was the winning all-arounder in two meets ... Thirteen of the 15 SPU gymnasts that competed this season have achieved at least one score of 9.50 or higher … Three Falcons garnered All-America acclaim in eight categories at the 2014 USAG championships, including returning gymnasts Maria Hundley (V, UB, BB), Shannon Escarra (AA, UB, FX) and Kristi Hayashida (BB).
 
Philadelphia Bound?
The season started in Seattle. The Falcons hope it ends in Philadelphia, Pa, the site of the 2015 USA Gymnastics (USAG) Collegiate Championships, April 10-12. SPU is a perennial championship contender, qualifying for 32 of the last 33 national meets primarily contested by NCAA Division II schools. Since 1982, the Falcons failed to appear at nationals only in 2009. They finished third last season and picked up four individual event national titles, three of them (vault, bars & beam) by current junior Maria Hundley.
 
Proud History
While the dictionary entry for "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 32 of the last 33 championship meets (1982-2008, 2010). SPU gymnasts have won 26 national individual crowns and collected 179 All-America awards.
 
2014 Recap
The Falcons forged one of the finest seasons in school history in 2014. They placed third at nationals as a team and collected eight All-America certificates at the USAG Collegiate Championships. Maria Hundley won individual event titles in the vault, bars and beam while Kai Tindall tied for top honors on the floor. The school's team-score record was rewritten six times, capped by a mark of 194.575 set on Feb 28 at UC Davis. SPU placed fourth at the MPSF Championships with a mark of 194.075.

 

2015 Season Preview
They have a tough act to follow! The 2014 Seattle Pacific gymnastics team placed third at the national meet, had a title-winning gymnast in all four events and improved the school record six times, the last with a 194.575. Maria Hundley captured the vault, bars and beam titles at the USA Gymnastics Championships, but an injury will sideline the junior for the start of the 2015 campaign. Premier vault, beam and floor performer, sophomore Lauren Glover, is also out with an injury after starring on the vault, beam and floor. And four seniors departed, including national floor co-champion Kai Tindall. "Last year was great, not only athletically, but academically," said 40th-year coach Laurel Tindall. "It leaves big shoes to fill for this year." The Falcons feature a six-gymnast senior class, including All-Americans Shannon Escarra (2014 all-around, bars & floor) and Sydney Clark (2013 all-around & floor).  Tindall projects the balance beam as a strong event and says that, "Our two Hawaiians are our strongest performers on beam." All-American Kristi Hayashida placed 10th at nationals on beam and her sophomore classmate Tracie Villanueva is much improved on that apparatus. The solid returning corps is enhanced with the addition of a stellar quartet of freshman led by vault and floor specialist Ariana Harger and bars performer Ana Sabates. SPU is in pursuit of its 33rd championship meet berth in the last 34 years. To accomplish that, it's up to Tindall and her staff of Sarah Jean Marshall and Carly Dockendorf to put gymnasts in the right spots. "We've got some new kids and some kids that are going to get experience who haven't got experience from previous years. We've got some decisions to make."
 
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 40th year as head coach, Tindall's SPU teams have won three national championships (1997, 1992, 1986). Falcon athletes garnered 26 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. She also operates the Falcon Gymnastics Center for local youth.
 
Home Sweet Brougham
The Falcons hostED three home meets at Brougham Pavilion on the Seattle Pacific campus. 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 national championship meet three times, most recently in 2007 when the Falcons finished second.