Mountaineers to compete in EAGL championships

After knocking out the regular season the West Virginia gymnastics team plans on doing what they’ve done all season: fight.

"No matter what happens to us we have to stay in it until the last routine," said WVU head coach Jason Butts. "I don’t care if we’re counting five falls by the end of the meet. I’ll be happy walking away knowing we did our best."

The Mountaineers finished the regular season 14-5 overall, including a 5-1 record in the Eastern Atlantic Gymnastics League and have fallen out of the top 25 in recent weeks despite upsetting three higher-ranked teams.

WVU is currently ranked No. 29 with a Regional Qualifying Score of 194.955.

With Pittsburgh playing host, the Mountaineers will make the short trip to the Fitzgerald Field House with their sights set on winning a league best seventh title. The team will also face No. 20 N.C. State, UNC and Pittsburgh for the first time this season.

"I think we’re the best team in the conference, and I’m excited to finally meet up with everybody at the same time and decide once and for all if we all hit, who’s the best or if we don’t all hit, who’s going to fight the longest and come out on top at the end," Butts said.

At last year’s EAGL championships West Virginia scored a 193.725, finishing in fourth place behind Maryland, UNH and champion UNC. WVU claimed two events as a team, finishing first on floor and vault while placing No. 7 on bars and beam.

WVU is second in the EAGL behind No. 20 N.C. State (195.715) who has a .76 edge heading into the weekend. The Mountaineers also rank No. 4 in the region behind No. 1 Florida, No. 5 Georgia and the Wolfpack.

With West Virginia moving to the Big 12 next season this will be the team’s last attempt to win its first EAGL title since 2008 when they scored a 196.05.

The Mountaineers’ strength this season has come on the floor exercise, as the team is No. 1 in the league and No. 3 in the Southeast region. The Mountaineers close out the regular season ranking No. 21 in the country for three straight weeks.

WVU fell one spot on vault to No. 22 nationally and rank No. 2 in the league with an RQS of 48.98.

Sloanhoffer winds down her second regular season ranked No. 33 nationally with three EAGL Gymnast of the Week awards and heads to the EAGL championships as the league’s highest scoring all-arounder with an RQS of 39.165.

Alaska Richardson has excelled on the floor exercise with an RQS of 9.855 putting her second in the league and at No. 40 in the country.

Aside from all the accomplishments the team had in their athletic performances, they also took care of their academics as 13 of the girls were named to the EAGL all-Academic team.

"The life of a college athlete is tough, but like I tell them they’re student-athletes – not athlete-students, and we’re getting them ready for the rest of their lives after gymnastics," Butts said.

West Virginia closed the regular season with four ranked teams in three games, upsetting three of those squads. The only loss came last weekend as then No. 10 LSU outscored WVU’s season-high road score, 196.85-194.9 in Baton Rouge.

"It was good because this weekend it’s going to be really loud at Fitzgerald," Butts said. "There will be eight teams, a lot of fans and a lot of distractions, so it’s good to come out of LSU where sometimes you couldn’t even hear yourself think it was so loud."

The team may be young on paper, but when it comes time to perform in pressure situations the Mountaineers don’t flinch a muscle. Butts values the depth the team has and hopes the girls feed off his confidence to put anybody in the lineup.

With the way the team has been practicing lately, 24 routines wouldn’t be enough as the first-year head coach is certain he could pick between 30-32 routines.

"At the end of the day if I know we fought all the way to the finish line, I’ll be happy," Butts said. "It doesn’t matter where we fall in the placings."