Hyland, Dukes to Represent UK at National Championships
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FORT WORTH, Texas – With the NCAA gymnastics season coming to a close, the Kentucky Wildcats gymnastics program will be represented at the NCAA gymnastics championships for the third consecutive year, as freshmen Sidney Dukes and Alex Hyland will compete in the all-around. Both will compete in the meet’s first session, beginning at 2 p.m. ET.
The meet will air live on ESPNU, with Bart Conner (play-by-play), Kathy Johnson Clarke (analyst) and Laura Rutledge (reporter) on the call.
In addition, ESPNU is expanding coverage of the NCAA Gymnastics Championship with live streams of each individual apparatus, and a quad-box view called “All-Around”. The “All-Around” channel allows a viewer to stream every apparatus live, at the same time, on one screen. All five streaming options, as well as the simulcast of the television coverage, are available through the ESPN app and WatchESPN.
ESPNU’s television coverage will use the “All-Around” quad-box view at various times throughout the meet as well.
Hyland and Dukes become the 13th and 14th UK gymnasts to qualify for the NCAA championships in program history with their berths to the 2016 national championships. Both qualified as all-arounders, as Hyland earned her first ever collegiate all-around title after scoring a 39.175 to take the event crown in Tuscaloosa, Ala., two weeks prior. Dukes placed second overall with a 39.125, edging Boise State’s Sandra Collantes in a tiebreaker.
The duo mark the eighth and ninth members of the program to compete in all-around at the national championships. Dukes led Kentucky on 24 occasions this season with 10 career event titles, while Hyland led UK on 11 occasions with five career event titles.
The 2016 national championships mark the fifth time in Kentucky’s history that the team has sent two all-around competitors to the national championship in the same season and the first time the team has achieved such a feat since 1996.
With the meet’s format, Dukes will compete alongside Stanford, while Hyland will follow Florida’s rotation.
Dukes will cover the uneven bars and balance beam in the first two rotations before a bye. The Tyler, Texas native will then compete on floor before concluding the meet on vault in the fifth rotation.
Hyland will begin the day with a bye rotation before advancing to floor, followed by vault. She will then sit out another rotation before competing on the uneven bars. The Foxborough, Mass., native will cap off the meet with her best event in the balance beam.
For complete news and updates on the Kentucky Gymnastics program, go to UKathletics.com. Breaking news, behind-the-scenes updates and more can be found on Twitter at @UKGymnastics and Facebook at Facebook.com/UKGymnastics.
