SUU Women’s Gymnastics Capture Conference Crown, Head to NCAA Regionals

The SUU Women's Gymnastics team made history by capturing the first title in the Mountain Rim Gymnastics Conference Saturday night in front of a home crowd at the America First Event Center. The Flippin' Birds outpaced BYU, Boise State and Utah state at the MRGC championship. Southern Utah finished with a score of 196.875. BYU followed with a score of 196.575, Boise State ended with a score of 196.000 and Utah State finished the night at 195.825. To go along with the solid victory, the Thunderbirds earned several MRGC award for the night. Graduate student Karley McClain was named Gymnast of the Year and floor Specialist of the Year. McClain was also named First Team All MRGC on both the floor and all-around while earning second team honors on both bars and beams. Freshman Kayla Pardue earned a First Team All MRGC for the vault. Graduate student Shylen Murakami picked up First Team All MRGC honors for the bars. Sophomore Ellie Cacciola was named First Team All MRGC on the beam and junior Aubri Schwartze made the First Team All MRGC floor team. Coach Scott Bauman was named the 2023 Mountain Rim Gymnastics Conference Coach of the Year. Coach Bauman has led the Flippin' Birds to a top-20 ranking this season reaching as high as #16 in week seven. The Women's Gymnastics team will now move on to compete in the NCAA regionals with a shot at a national championship. On Monday morning, the NCAA Selection Committee announced regional selections. The Flippin' Birds will compete in the Los Angeles Regional hosted by UCLA. In that regional they will face squads from in state competitor Utah, along with teams from UCLA, Auburn, Missouri, Stanford and Washington. In addition they will again see MRGC foes Boise State and BYU. The Los Angeles regional will take place from March 29^th to April 2^nd. The top two teams from each region will move on to the semi-final competition to be held April 13^th in Fort Worth, Texas. The finals will be held on April 15^th, also in Fort Worth. The finals we be broadcast on ABC Television.