Gymnastics’ best effort falls short for NCAAs

It wasn't the ideal finish senior Chelsi Tabor and junior Amy Bieski had hoped for.

The West Virginia squad placed fourth in the NCAA Southeast Regional meet held Saturday at the WVU Coliseum.

In her final opportunity to qualify for the NCAA National competition, Tabor ended fifth overall on the vault with a 9.875 performance.

The team, however, compiled its second-best point total of the season with a 195.100 performance to finish fourth overall.

"I was disappointed (in my beam performance)," Tabor said. "I knew we could have scored to win this thing, but coming in with the sixth seed and finishing fourth, we couldn't have asked for anything better."

WVU also put up its best beam score of the season (48.85) thanks to a pair of career-best scores from Bieski (9.85), good enough for third overall, and Nicole Roach (9.8).

"We didn't have the best meet of our lives, but we finished higher than we were seeded," Bieski said. "We did awesome."

In her final collegiate meet, senior Kiersten Spoerke finished sixth overall with a 9.825 score.

"It is an honor to be mentioned among the nation‘s best," she said. "I couldn't have asked for anything more from today."

Stanford and Michigan advanced to the National Championships April 22-23 in Gainesville, Fla.

Stanford scored 196.775, while UM placed second with a 195.800.

Taylor Seaman of N.C. State and Elise Wheeler of Southern Utah finished in the top two in the all-around to also advance to the national competition.

While the Mountaineers were at home, the meet was different compared to what West Virginia is used to experiencing in a home meet.

Usually the team opens up with the vault, while Saturday it began on bars.

But the Mountaineers' didn't mind the change as the team sat in third place after the first event.

Junior Emily Kerwin led the Mountaineers with her second-best bars score of the season, a 9.775.

WVU earned a 48.600 in the event.

"With all that we had happen this season, I thought we finished in amazing style," said WVU head coach Linda Burdette-Good. "I was very pleased with the team and how well they perform. A lot of times the seniors are nervous and try too hard, but this year, I thought they did a fantastic job."

Bieski, the Mountaineers lone all-around competitor was just 0.15 points from qualifying for Nationals.

The Nanticoke, Pa., native scored 39.100, good enough for ninth place.

The score was her eighth of at least 39 points in the all-around and tied her with Mehgan Morris and TeShawne Jackson for fifth place on the school's all-time career 39.0-plus all-around scores list with 15.

"It is very disappointing," Burdette-Good said of Bieski not advancing to Nationals. "But she had a very, very good year. She cannot be ashamed at how she finished."

In the end, Burdette-Good said the meet was one to remember, not only for her team's performance, but also the production of the meet.

"The administration for WVU did an amazing job producing this competition," the 36-year head coaching veteran said. "It was absolutely as good as any meet I have ever attended including national championships. My team is very fortunate to have support from this University."

The Mountaineers' fourth place finish ends the team's season with a 21-12 record.