2008 Woodie Awards
Gym'Backs look for NCAA berth
Harold McIlvain II
Issue date: 4/11/08 Section: Sports
For the fifth time in the program's six seasons, the No. 11 Arkansas Gym'Backs will compete for a chance to make it to the NCAA Championship as the team travels to Minnesota to take part Saturday in the North Central Regional Championship at 6 p.m.
The Gym'Backs are coming off a sixth place showing at the Southeastern Conference Tournament, but that disappointing performance has more than likely already been forgotten, Arkansas co-head coach Rene Cook said.
"This team doesn't really hold on to stuff like that. They probably forgot the next day; they move on to the next meet," Cook said. "We have traditionally not faired well at the SEC Championship and have performed well at the Regional championship."
The team needs to finish in the top two to send itself to Athens for the NCAA Championships against a field that will include No. 2 Utah, No. 14 Arizona, No. 23 Iowa, No. 27 Southern Utah and No. 28 Minnesota.
Beating Utah will be a hard task for the Gym'Backs, but anything is possible, Cook said. The team will also need to perform well to hold off an Arizona squad that has performed well down the stretch, Cook said.
"Arizona is traditionally a strong program, but they had some injuries early in the season, so they started off slow," Cook said. "They have…come on strong in the second half of the season, and they are capable [of beating us] if we don't do our job."
Arkansas has a 3-5 combined record against the field all-time, with all five losses coming to Arizona and Utah.
The Gym'Backs received a favorable draw as the team received the same draw against UCLA, where the team tied a then season high of 196.425, Cook said. The team will also get another shot at starting on bars as the team did at the SEC Tournament.
"We like where we are in the rotation since we had a lot of successes with that rotation," Cook said. "We will start on bars, and that is the event we struggled with at the SEC Tournament. There is no better way than to get back [to competition] with an event we had a few mistakes on as we want to go out and be aggressive."
The Gym'Backs are coming off a sixth place showing at the Southeastern Conference Tournament, but that disappointing performance has more than likely already been forgotten, Arkansas co-head coach Rene Cook said.
"This team doesn't really hold on to stuff like that. They probably forgot the next day; they move on to the next meet," Cook said. "We have traditionally not faired well at the SEC Championship and have performed well at the Regional championship."
The team needs to finish in the top two to send itself to Athens for the NCAA Championships against a field that will include No. 2 Utah, No. 14 Arizona, No. 23 Iowa, No. 27 Southern Utah and No. 28 Minnesota.
Beating Utah will be a hard task for the Gym'Backs, but anything is possible, Cook said. The team will also need to perform well to hold off an Arizona squad that has performed well down the stretch, Cook said.
"Arizona is traditionally a strong program, but they had some injuries early in the season, so they started off slow," Cook said. "They have…come on strong in the second half of the season, and they are capable [of beating us] if we don't do our job."
Arkansas has a 3-5 combined record against the field all-time, with all five losses coming to Arizona and Utah.
The Gym'Backs received a favorable draw as the team received the same draw against UCLA, where the team tied a then season high of 196.425, Cook said. The team will also get another shot at starting on bars as the team did at the SEC Tournament.
"We like where we are in the rotation since we had a lot of successes with that rotation," Cook said. "We will start on bars, and that is the event we struggled with at the SEC Tournament. There is no better way than to get back [to competition] with an event we had a few mistakes on as we want to go out and be aggressive."
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