NCAA announces selections for 2023 Regional competition

INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA selections were announced Monday for the 2023 National Collegiate Women’s Gymnastics Championships regionals, and No. 33 BYU will compete in the Los Angeles Regional hosted by UCLA at Pauley Pavilion. 

The Los Angeles Regional will host nine teams for the NCAA competition and run from Wednesday, Mar. 29-Saturday, Apr. 1. The Cougars will compete in their first meet on Wednesday at 2 p.m. PT when they take on Mountain Rim Gymnastics Conference rival Boise State. The teams will fight for the chance to advance and compete against No. 4 UCLA, No. 14 Missouri and No. 20 Stanford on Thursday, Mar. 30 for the 7 p.m. PT session. 

The other four schools competing in Los Angeles will be starting their tournament run on Thursday, Mar. 30. These teams include No. 5 Utah, No. 12 Auburn, No. 21 Southern Utah and No. 27 Washington.

Individual all-around competitors competing in the Regional are Central Michigan's Hannah Demers, Long Island's Syd Morris and San Jose State's Lauren MacPherson. Individual event specialists are Boise State's Emily Lopez (vault, bars) and Courtney Blackson (bars, floor); BYU's Sydney Benson (vault), Kylie Eaquinto (vault), Anyssa Alvarado (bars) and Elease Rollins (beam); San Jose State's Jaudai Lopes (vault), Emma Milne (bars, beam) and Jada Mazury (floor); Long Island's Mara Titarsolej (bars) and Ilka Juk (beam); Sacramento State's Amber Koeth (beam); and Central Michigan's Taylor Pitchell (floor).

The top 36 teams based on national qualifying score (NQS) were selected for regional competition. The NCAA selection committee identified the top 16 teams and seeded them in their specific brackets. Teams 17-36 were placed geographically at one of the four regional sites. All host teams stay home to compete, whether they are a top-16 seed or not. The top 12 all-around competitors and top 16 event specialists were selected based on national qualifying scores and will be placed geographically, keeping individuals from the same team together.

The National Collegiate Women’s Gymnastics Championships will consist of eight teams, four all-around competitors and 16 event specialists. The top two teams and the top all-around competitor (who is not on an advancing team) from each regional will receive an automatic berth to the national championships. In addition, the top event specialist in each event (not on an advancing team or an all-around competitor) advances to the national championship (in that event only).