April 14, 2008

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The Alabama Gymnastics team found out today that it will compete in the first of two preliminary sessions at the 2008 NCAA Championships and will start things off on the balance beam.

The Crimson Tide is seeded sixth coming into the NCAA Championships being held on the University of Georgia campus April 24-26 at Stegeman Coliseum. After starting on the balance beam, it will then move to a bye, followed by the floor exercise and vault. After a second bye rotation, Alabama will finish off the meet on the uneven bars.

Joining the Tide in the afternoon session, which gets underway Thursday at 1 p.m. ET, will be No. 2 seed Florida, No. 3 LSU as well as Oregon State, Oklahoma and Arkansas. No. 1 seed Georgia along with Utah, UCLA, Stanford, Michigan and Denver will compete in the second preliminary session, which starts at 7 p.m. ET. The top three teams from each session will advance to Friday's NCAA Super Six Team Finals which gets underway at 6 p.m. ET.

The top four individuals from each session in each event (plus ties) from the preliminary team and all-around competition on Thursday will compete in the individual event finals on Saturday at 6 p.m. ET.

Beginning with the 2008 championships, the process for determining rotation pairings for day one of the team competition at the site of the finals is based on a National Qualifying Score (NQS) calculated by adding the Regional Qualifying Score (RQS) to the score achieved at regional competition.

Once the NQS is calculated, teams are ranked based on the NQS from 1 to 12. Teams 1, 4, 5, 8, 9 and 12 were placed in Thursday's evening session and teams 2, 3, 6, 7, 10 and 11 were placed in the afternoon.

Alabama is making its 26th consecutive appearance at the NCAA Championships final site. The Tide won its 23rd NCAA Regional Championship last Saturday.