April 14, 2008

UCLA will begin its NCAA Championships competition on the uneven bars, as determined by a random draw conducted by the NCAA on Monday morning. The Bruins will compete in the evening session of the Team Preliminaries on Thursday, Apr. 24 at 7:00 pm ET at the University of Georgia's Stegeman Coliseum. Also competing in the evening session are three-time defending champion and host team Georgia, 2006 and 2007 runner-up Utah, Stanford, Michigan and Denver.

Competing in the afternoon session will be Florida, LSU, Alabama, Oregon State, Arkansas and Oklahoma.

The top three finishers from each preliminary session will advance to the Super Six Team Finals on Friday, Apr. 25 at 6:00 pm ET.

The five-time NCAA champion Bruins drew the same rotation they received at the Regional meet, beginning on uneven bars, moving to balance beam, then a bye, floor exercise, vault and ending on a bye. Denver begins on vault, Utah on a bye before bars, Georgia on beam, Michigan on a bye before floor and Stanford on floor. Rotating with UCLA will be individual all-around qualifier Julie Dwyer of Auburn.

UCLA will begin and end on its best events. The Bruins finished the regular season ranked No. 2 in the nation on uneven bars and No. 6 on vault. The team has scored season-highs of 49.425 on both events.

This season, the teams were re-seeded for Nationals based on National Qualifying Score, which took the teams' Regional Championships score and combined it with their Regional Qualifying Score. Teams seeded 1, 4, 5, 8, 9 and 12 were placed in one group, while teams seeded 2, 3, 6, 7, 10 and 11 were placed in the other group. The Bruins are the No. 9 seed.

UCLA has now qualified for 24 NCAA Gymnastics Championships.