Championship Run Starts Today

NORMAN, Okla. -- When OU head coach K.J. Kindler arrived in Norman in June 2006, she made it her immediate goal to take the Sooners to the next level. A perennial top-10 team, Kindler believed Oklahoma had the resources and talent to make it to the sport's elite level: the Super Six.

Kindler's squad will have their chance as they prepare to compete in the 2007 NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships, April 26-28 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The event will be hosted by the University of Utah at the Jon M. Huntsman Center. Preliminary team and all-around competition will be conducted in two sessions Thursday, April 26 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. (CT). The top three teams from each session will advance to the team finals, the Super Six, April 27 at 8 p.m. CBS will air the team and all-around finals on May 12 at 3 p.m. (CT).

The Sooners are in the Championships for the fourth consecutive season, a school record. Oklahoma finished 10th at last year's finals, posting a 195.525 in session one of the qualifiers. Brittney Koncak-Schumann and Kiara Redmond each earned Second Team All-America honors in the all-around and on the floor exercise, while Stephanie LoPiccolo garnered First Team distinction on the uneven bars.

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In 2007, the Sooners are led again by Redmond and Koncak-Schumann, who rank 11th and 15th, respectively, in the national all-around rankings. Koncak-Schumann, one of two seniors on the OU squad, boasts 26 event titles in 2007 including six all-around wins. Redmond, Oklahoma's top gymnast on floor and vault, owns five all-around wins and a total of 17 event titles as a junior.

Standing in the way of OU's march into the Super Six are the nation's top three teams, including two-time reigning national champion Georgia. The lineup for the first qualifying session at the NCAA Championships also includes No. 1 Florida and a third-ranked Alabama team that has beaten the Sooners twice in 2007. Big 12 champion and sixth-ranked Nebraska are also in the Sooners' session, as is No. 8 Oregon State. Four of the six teams (Georgia, Alabama, Nebraska and Florida) made to to last year's Super Six.

“Our session includes a lot of veteran teams,” Kindler said. “They have a lot of NCAA experience and they've all had great seasons. We know it's going to take a mistake-free performance in order to advance.”

Kindler is no stranger to the Super Six, having led Iowa State to the school's first appearance in the NCAA finals last season.

Competing in the second session are host Utah, Stanford, Michigan, UCLA, LSU and Denver.

Only four teams have ever won an NCAA title in women's gymnastics. Utah owns nine titles, followed by Georgia with seven and UCLA with five. Alabama has won four NCAA crowns, most recently in 2002.

The women's gymnastics championships consist of 12 teams and 12 all-around competitors (who are not on a qualifying team) and individual event specialists. The top two teams and the top two all-around competitors from each regional received automatic berths to the national championships.

In addition, the event winners at the regional championships advanced to the national championships (in their specific event) if they were not part of a qualifying team or the all-around qualifiers.

The top four individuals from each session in each event (plus ties) from the preliminary team and all-around competition will also compete in the individual-event competition Saturday, April 28 at 8 p.m.

Live scoring will be available on SoonerSports.com, as well as at UtahUtes.cstv.com.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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