April 11, 2008

Complete Release in PDF Format

FULLERTON, CA - For the first time since 2005, the Cal State Fullerton women's gymnastics squad will be represented in NCAA Regional competition as freshmen Alaina Baker and Maddie Steinauer will compete as individuals on Saturday night (April 12) at 6 p.m. at Gill Coliseum in Corvallis, Ore.

Michigan is the top-seeded team in the competition followed by Oregon State, Michigan State, Washington, San Jose State, and Sacramento State.

I NEED STATS, STAT: Live scoring of the NCAA regional championships will be available via the women's gymnastics page of Oregon State's official athletics website at www.osubeavers.com. Once there, click on the NCAA West Regional graphic in the middle of the page to access the link.

ROTATION: Baker will be one of five individuals in the all-around, competing alongside top-seeded Michigan, while Steinauer will compete in the vault only along with Sacramento State. Both Baker and Steinauer will begin their competitions in the second rotation along with their respective teams. Baker's all-around will begin on bars.

LOOKING AHEAD: Individual event winners at regionals will advance to the national championships in Athens, Georgia, on Apr. 24-26 (in that event only) if they are not part of a qualifying team or the all-around qualifiers.

THE LAST TIME...: The Titans last sent an individual to the NCAA Regionals in 2005 when Brittany Hoffman competed as an all-arounder in Seattle, Wash., during her junior season... She eventually finished 14th in the all-around with a score of 38.625 and posted her best finish on floor with a 9.75 to finish in a tie for 18th... Hoffman also finished tied for 30th on vault (9.65), tied for 29th on bars (9.60), and tied for 33rd on beam (9.625)... Cal State Fullerton last had an individual qualify for the NCAA finals in 2002 when Kelly Mathiasen competed as an individual all-arounder, finishing 13th with a score of 39.025... The Titans last qualified for regionals as a team in 2004, finishing 6th (193.000), and last made the NCAA finals as a squad in 1990, finishing eighth (189.700).

FOUR TITANS NAMED ALL-WAC: Freshmen Maddie Steinauer, Shelly Cooper, and Alaina Baker along with junior Jessica Tait earned All-Western Athletic Conference honors by virtue of their performances at the conference championships on March 29. Steinauer was a second-team selection on vault after finishing fourth with a 9.825 in the event - just .050 off the leader. Cooper was also a second-team honoree in the event after tying a career-high with a 9.80 to finish sixth. Tait was a second-team honoree on beam with a 9.80 to finish sixth while Baker earned a pair of all-conference second-team awards after finishing fourth on floor (9.875) and sixth in the all-around (38.900).

2008 WAC CHAMPIONSHIPS: Cal State Fullerton topped the 192-point mark for the seventh time in the last eight meets, but it wasn't enough for the Titans as they finished sixth at the 2008 Western Athletic Conference Championships in Boise, Idaho. Host Boise State won a hotly-contested championship that saw the top five teams separated by only eight-tenths of a point. The Broncos finished with a 194.925 to edge second-place San Jose State, which finished second with a 194.725. Southern Utah was third with a 194.575, followed by Sacramento State (194.275), Utah State (194.150), and Cal State Fullerton (192.650).

MEET Alaina Baker: A freshman from Oak Grove, Missouri, Baker has been a consistent scorer for the Titans all season... Baker has competed all-around in every meet for Fullerton in 2008, scoring better than 38 points in 11 of the 12 meets this season... Baker scored a career-high 39.125 in a dual meet against Boise State... she is averaging a team-best 38.567 in the all-around this season and her 38.890 regional qualifying score ranks her 11th in the west region and No. 71 nationally... if the season ended today, her single-season average would rank eighth on the school's all-time list... Baker has won the all-around twice while finishing in the top three in six other meets... is averaging 9.738 (with a career-high of 9.80) on vault to rank second on the team and seventh on the single-season list... has scored 9.75 or better in six of the team's last seven meets... Averaging a team-best 9.692 on bars with a career-high of 9.825 set against Oregon State on Feb. 29... Averaging a team-high 9.790 on floor, including a career-high 9.90 twice - the first in a quad meet against UCLA, Brown, and Wisconsin-Eau Claire on Jan. 20 and again against Boise State on Feb. 17... has won floor five times in 12 meets this season, including three straight meets from Jan. 13-27... has scored 9.80 or better on floor in three of the last four meets.

MEET Maddie Steinauer: A freshman from Omaha, Nebraska, Steinauer has competed vault in 11 of the team's 12 meet, missing only one due to injury... has scored 9.80 or better in 10 of her 11 meets... Averaged a team-best 9.805 this season on vault, which would be a new school single-season record, breaking Kelly Mathiasen's average of 9.778 set in 2000... set a career-high with a 9.85 in three consecutive meets from Feb. 1-17... won vault four times on the year with three more second-place finishes... took home first place on the apparatus in the team's final two regular season meets on the road at California (March 21) and Arizona (March 29)... her regional qualifying score of 9.835 ranked her 14th in the west region and No. 78 in the nation... also competed beam nine times and floor exercise three times, scoring a career-high of 9.65 on beam on March 16 at California and 9.675 on floor in the season opener on Jan. 11 at San Jose State.

ABOUT THE COACH: Cal State Fullerton second-year Head Coach Jill Hicks returns to her alma mater for the second time as coach of the Titans' program this weekend, helping guide her two student-athletes through the NCAA regional competition. Only the fourth head coach in the history of the program, Hicks, a 1982 graduate of Oregon State, was named the 2007 Western Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in her rookie season after helping lead Fullerton to wins in three of its first four meets and an upset of No. 21 Arizona State before the Titans finished fifth at the conference championships. Hicks spent 14 years working with the Oregon State program (four as an undergraduate "coach" and 10 as a full-time assistant from 1987-97), helping lead the Beavers to nine consecutive NCAA appearances and helping produce 33 All-Americans and five national champions working primarily with student-athletes on beam and floor.