Kentucky Gymnastics Set For NCAA Seattle Regional

SEATTLE – The Kentucky gymnastics team will compete in the NCAA Seattle Regional on Saturday at 7 p.m. ET at the Alaska Airlines Arena on the campus of the University of Washington. Kentucky is making its 13th-straight trip to a NCAA regional, and is a two seed in the event for the first time in school history. 

UK earned the high seed with a school record regional qualifying score of 196.845. The Wildcats will look to earn its first ever team berth to the NCAA gymnastics national championships.

Kentucky will face No. 1 Oklahoma, host No. 3 Washington, Stanford, Utah State and BYU. OU is currently the No. 1 ranked team in the nation with an RQS of 198.010. The host Huskies follow Kentucky closely at No. 13, with an RQS of 196.735. UW traveled to UK one month ago, where Kentucky edged Washington, 196.625 – 196.450 in the Kentucky quad meet. USU is No. 24 at 195.915, PAC-12 opponent Stanford is No. 32 at 195.695 and BYU is No. 34 at 195.460. 

Individuals from Seattle-Pacific, UC Davis, Sacramento State and San Jose State will also compete at the NCAA Regional. Caitlin Sollwoda of Sacramento State will join the Cats throughout the night of competition. 

The match will stream live on Pac-12.com. 

For the first time in school history, two Wildcats earned regular season All-America honors. The top-eight Regional Qualifying Scores earned first team All-America honors, while 9-16 earned second-team All-America. Two Wildcats – freshman Mollie Korth and sophomore Alex Hyland – earned the distinction for their performances throughout the regular season. Korth was named second-team All-America in the all-around and on the vault. Korth’s all-around score was the 12th-best in the nation at 39.470, while her vault RQS was 9.910. Hyland earns second-team All-America distinction, holding the No. 13 beam score in the RQS at 9.915.

Freshman Mollie Korth earned four SEC Freshman of the Week awards and was named SEC Freshman of the Year by the Southeastern Conference. Korth joins the record books as the sixth SEC Freshman of the Year in UK history. She joins Jenny Hansen (1993), Kristin Hoeferlin (1997), Ashley Burkholder (1998), Julia Gore (2000) and Whitney Rose (2009).

Three Wildcats – freshman Mollie Korth, sophomore Alex Hyland and sophomore Sidney Dukes – earned All-SEC for their performance in the first session of the meet. Korth earned All-SEC for her first session all-around win with a 39.425. Hyland earned All-SEC with the SEC beam title while Dukes finished second in the first session on the beam with a 9.9 in the first session.

Sophomore Alex Hyland won the SEC beam title with a career-best 9.95 at the SEC Championship. Hyland has been incredible on the apparatus all season. She is currently No. 13 in beam RQS with a 9.915, and is No. 4 in beam average score at 9.894.

It seems as though every week the Cats have improved its Regional Qualifying Score, and this week was no different. UK improved its score to a program-high 196.845, putting the Wildcats at No. 12 in the nation. Qualification for regional competition is based on a team’s and an all-around competitor’s six best regular-season-meet scores, of which three must be away. To obtain the regional qualifying score (RQS), the high score is eliminated and the remaining five scores are averaged.

Kentucky sits in the top-15 in every rotational ranking. The Wildcats’ highest ranking is on the vault at No. 9 of 49.245. The Cats match their team rankings of No. 12 on bars and beam with RQS’ of 49.235 and 49.285, respectively. On Floor, UK is No. 13 at 49.265.