March 19, 2013
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The No. 19 Kentucky gymnastics team claimed the No. 7 seed and will compete in session I at the SEC Championship on Saturday, the league office announced.
Fifth-seeded Auburn, No. 6 Arkansas and No. 8 seed Missouri will join Kentucky in Session I at 3 p.m. ET on Saturday.
As the No. 7 seed, Kentucky will begin on balance beam, and rotate to floor exercise, vault and then uneven bars to end the completion.
Session II will feature No. 1 seed Florida, No. 2 Alabama, No. 3 Georgia and No. 4 LSU. The evening session will start at 6 p.m. CT inside Verizon Arena in North Little Rock, Ark.
SEC Championship seeding was determined by regional qualifying score (RQS) rankings released Monday by GymInfo.
The SEC champion will be determined by the team with the highest score regardless of session.
Tickets to the championship are available at www.SECDigitalNetwork.com or by calling Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000.
Kentucky is ranked No. 19 nationally with a new school-record 196.060 RQS, after the Wildcats set a new school record with a 196.775 last Saturday at No. 16 Penn State.
Kentucky is ranked No. 25 on vault, No. 21 on uneven bars and No. 15 on balance beam.
The Wildcats are coming off a school-record team beam score of 49.475 at Penn State.
Fans and media can attend an open practice session on Friday, March 22. Kentucky will be joined by Auburn, Arkansas and Missouri from 2:00 until 3:48 p.m. ET. Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and LSU will practice from 4:22 until 6:10 p.m. ET. Additionally, the SEC will announce its regular season awards including gymnast of the year, freshman of the year, coach of the year, and scholar athlete of the year in between the two practice sessions at 3:55 p.m. ET. The practice sessions and regular season award ceremony are both open free to all fans.
SEC Championship – March 23
Verizon Arena (North Little Rock, Ark.)
Session I – 3 p.m. ET
Seed 5: Auburn, 196.510 RQS (starts on vault)
Seed 6: Arkansas, 196.285 RQS (starts on bars)
Seed 7: Kentucky, 196.060 RQS (starts on beam)
Seed 8: Missouri, 194.525 RQS (starts on floor)
Session II – 7 p.m. ET
Seed 1: Florida, 197.700 RQS (starts on vault)
Seed 2: Alabama, 197.260 RQS (starts on bars)
Seed 3: Georgia, 197.160 RQS (starts on beam)
Seed 4: LSU, 197.065 RQS (starts on floor)
GymInfo Gymnastics Top 25 – 3/18/13
Rank, Team, Regional Qualifying Score (RQS)
1. Florida 197.700
2. Oklahoma 197.570
3. Alabama 197.260
4. Michigan 197.175
5. Georgia 197.160
6. LSU 197.065
7. Utah 197.010
8. UCLA 197.000
9. Nebraska 196.840
10. Oregon State 196.790
11. Stanford 196.590
12. Auburn 196.510
13. Denver 196.470
t14. Minnesota 196.365
t14. Penn State 196.365
16. Arkansas 196.285
17. Arizona 196.090
18. Illinois 196.080
19. Kentucky 196.060
20. Ohio State 195.825
21. Kent State 195.815
t22. Maryland 195.810
t22. Central Michigan 195.810
24. Boise State 195.785
25. West Virginia 195.780
Monday Wildcats are back in the gym. It’s SEC week! vine.co/v/bpiTrWMF3vH
— UK Gymnastics (@UKGymnastics) March 18, 2013