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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16 –
Seattle Pacific at Sacramento State Triangular, 7:00 p.m. PST
Hornets Nest / Sacramento, Calif.
 
• Webcast:  http://free.pluto.tv/ (channel 203)
• Live Scoring:  http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=201962
 
A three-meet gymnastics road trip concludes for Seattle Pacific on Friday, Feb. 16 in Sacramento, Calif. The Falcons compete in a 7 p.m. triangular meet at the Hornets Nest with San Jose State and host Sacramento State. The two NCAA Division I opponents, both of which boast a top team score above 194.000, are elite competition for the Division II Falcons, whose best mark of 191.325 was set Jan. 12. They are two of 14 Division I foes on SPU's regular-season schedule. This is the 45th season of intercollegiate gymnastics competition at Seattle Pacific and the 43rd with Coach Laurel Tindall at the helm.
 
Friday's Field
Seattle Pacific is the only NCAA Division II competitor in the three-team field at Sacramento State and all are Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MSPF) members. San Jose State is ranked No. 47 nationally with a high score of 194.500. The Spartans won the 2017 MPSF Championship, the conference meet that saw Sacramento State place third and SPU fifth. Sacramento is ranked No. 56 nationally with a high of 194.400. Seattle Pacific is 65th among all college teams in the rankings that are dominated by Division I squads. The Falcons are rated No. 11 among teams vying for eight berths to the USA Gymnastics (USAGym) collegiate championships, set for April 13-15 in Denton, Texas.
 
Gym Shorts
SPU gymnasts received scores of 9.70 or higher 22 times this season ... Thirteen of 14 SPU gymnasts earned a score of 9.50 or better at least once in 2018 ... Sophomore Darian Burns was the co-national champion on the floor exercise with a score of 9.90 at the 2017 USAGym Collegiate meet.


 
Last Week
Darian Burns won the all-around competition and McKenna Zimmermann was the runner-up on Feb. 10 for Seattle Pacific, which finished a distant second at Air Force, 194.275-189.250. Burns compiled a four-event total of 37.875, including a fourth-place floor score of 9.700. She earned a season-best mark of 9.725 on the uneven bars and scored 9.500 on the vault. Zimmermann totaled 36.850 points in the all-around led by a 9.525 vault. Sophomore Miyuki Matsune turned in a fourth-place mark of 9.775 on the beam, her career best, despite having her left arm wrapped due to a broken bone in her hand. That was the highest score for any SPU gymnast in any event. Itzia San Roman performed the Falcons' top vault (9.600) and Sienna Brane was their best on bars (9.750).
 
Young Falcons
Six SPU gymnasts made their collegiate debut this year, all of them freshmen. Jadacie Durst, Autumn Huskie, Haven Lanzador, Kylie Reese, Shelbi Spivey and McKenna Zimmermann combined for 51 of the team's 120 routines ... The SPU roster lists just one senior, Brittany Atchison ... Twelve of the 16 total gymnasts are underclassmen and just three are juniors: Kylee Gauna, Carly Kano, Itzia San Roman.
 
2017 Recap
The Falcons made their eighth straight USA Gymnastics Championships appearance, placing fifth at the national meet April 7-9 in Brougham Pavilion. Darian Burns qualified for event finals on the vault, bars and floor and capped her freshman season with a season-best 9.90 to share national championship floor honors with Bridgeport's Brianna Comport. Burns was seventh on the vault and bars. Senior Kristi Hayashida placed fourth on the beam, while three other Falcons reached the event finals; Ariana Harger (floor, 12th, 9.650), Lauren Glover (floor, 14th, 9.575) and Breanna Beltran (bars, 15th, 9.625). SPU achieved a season-high score of 194.100 at Washington in the final regular-season meet and finished fifth at the MPSF Championships with a mark of 192.775.
 
Proud History
SPU earned invitations to 35 of the last 36 championship meets, winning national titles in 1986 (NCAA Division II), 1992 (USGF) and 1997 (USGF). Falcons' gymnasts have collected 31 national individual crowns and 207 All-America awards.

 

2018 Preview
Youth will be served in generous portions at Seattle Pacific gymnastics meets this season. Just one senior (Brittany Atchison) and three juniors appear on the 16-gymast roster that features 12 underclassmen -- six freshmen and six sophomores. Opportunities will be plentiful for young Falcons to soar, like current sophomore Darian Burns did in her first collegiate campaign. Burns was the team's top all-arounder in her inaugural meet and concluded the season by winning the floor exercise national championship with a season-best score of 9.90. Junior Itzia San Roman was a significant three-event specialist who will compete in the all-around after adding the bars to her repertoire. She joins the lineup that features sophomore Sienna Brane, who has a 9.75 on the bars to her credit. Another sophomore, Miyuki Matsune, excelled on bars, beam and floor and may join the vault crew to provide another all-arounder. The vault group includes sophomore Lena Wirth, who topped out at 9.750 last year. Many members of the stellar group of six newcomers will likely contribute immediately. All six are from different states, none of them from Washington: Jadacie Durst (Nevada), Autumn Huskie (Colorado), Haven Lanzador (Ohio), Kylie Reese (Oregon), Shelbi Spivey (Texas) and McKenna Zimmermann (California). SPU is in pursuit of its 36th championship meet berth in the last 37 years, all of them under 43rd-year coach Laurel Tindall. She is an SPU graduate (1975), as are her assistant coaches, Sarah Jean Marshall (2007) and Deni Maxwell (1998). The Falcons won team national championships in 1986, 1992 and 1997. They take on an ambitious schedule that includes 14 NCAA Division I opponents. The Division II Falcons seek to improve upon the fifth-place national result they accomplished at the 2017 USAGym meet.
 
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, more than 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 43rd year as head coach, Tindall's SPU teams have won three national championships (1997, 1992, 1986). Falcon athletes garnered 31 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
Seattle Pacific hosts four 2018 home meets at Brougham Pavilion on 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 four times, most recently in 2017 when the Falcons finished fifth. Along with the already completed meets on Jan. 12 and 26, SPU hosts Alaska Anchorage and Sacramento State on Feb. 23 and Air Force on March 17.
 
Next Week
The Falcons return home to host Alaska Anchorage and Sacramento State on Friday, Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. in Brougham Pavilion.