@RazorbackGym Practice Report: Morgantown Regional

MORGANTOWN, W. Va. – The No. 19-ranked University of Arkansas women’s gymnastics team participated in an open stretch period at the West Virginia University Coliseum on Friday afternoon to prepare them for Saturday’s NCAA Morgantown Regional.

After a nearly 11-hour trip on Thursday, the Razorbacks were able stretch out and get accustomed to the equipment that they’ll be competing on this Saturday, April 4, at the NCAA Regional competition. Arkansas went in a FX, V, UB, BB rotation, which will be the team’s rotation tomorrow afternoon, and shared the arena with the co-defending national champions, and fellow Southeastern Conference team, Florida, along with New Hampshire.

Head coach Mark Cook was pleased with his team’s efforts today, as his team’s mindset during the stretch period was that of a normal practice.

“We basically had a practice day,” said Cook. “We went on each event and did our skills, much like we would back home. We did full routines on bars and optional skills on the other three events. Today was also meant for us to get adjusted to the equipment, the arena and the environment. It’s important to get your bodies moving the day before a competition. We did really well adjusting to everything. We have to recover a bit for tomorrow and come back in and be aggressive.”

Junior Heather Elswick said the team went into today’s open stretch with a lot of confidence and hopes it will pay off for tomorrow’s meet.

“Today’s stretch went really well,” stated Elswick. “We were really confident and aggressive on all everything we warmed up on. Our team is ready to go tomorrow.”

Sophomore Amanda Wellick added that the team got a good feel for all the equipment today, which will allow them to be a bit more comfortable during competition.

Cook stressed that his team needs to hit on all four events and avoid any major mistakes in order to finish in the top-two at the Regional and advance to the NCAA Championship Session in two weeks.

The Razorbacks will compete in the 2015 NCAA Morgantown Regional on Saturday afternoon. No. 19 Arkansas will be the four-seed at the Regional competition, and will need to finish either first or second to advance to the NCAA Championship Session as a team. The Razorbacks will be joined by No. 2 Florida, No. 11 Stanford, No. 14 Illinois, No. 25 New Hampshire and host-school West Virginia tomorrow afternoon. Events begin at 3 p.m. CT.

For more information on the Arkansas women’s gymnastics team, follow @RazorbackGym on Twitter.