EAGL History [ 1996 - 2011 ]
For the third consecutive year, five EAGL teams qualified for the NCAA regional championships. The Tar Heels earned the league’s top score with a 195.225 mark. NC State (194.75) finished second among EAGL schools, while UNH placed third (194.5), UMD fourth (193.2) and WVU fifth (192.5). UNC senior Morgan Evans closed out her collegiate career with an individual all-around qualification to the 2011 NCAA Championships. She was joined by NCSU freshman Stephanie Ouellette.
Chelsi Tabor After almost two decades of competition, the East Atlantic Gymnastics League (EAGL) is a prominent league in NCAA Division I gymnastics. The EAGL became a reality on July 31, 1995, when eight universities banded together to form a consortium created solely for the purpose of showcasing women’s gymnastics on the East Coast. Representing three conferences and six states, the EAGL was comprised of the University of Maryland, the University of North Carolina and North Carolina State University of the Atlantic Coast Conference, the University of Pittsburgh, Rutgers University and West Virginia University of the BIG EAST Conference and the University of New Hampshire and Towson University of America East. In August 1996, the NCAA Council accepted the EAGL as an official affiliated member of the NCAA. In 2005, George Washington University joined the league, replacing Towson. EAGL schools have had a long history of gymnastics success. Prior to joining the EAGL, New Hampshire won four ECAC titles. West Virginia won four straight Atlantic 10 Conference titles before leaving that league to join the EAGL. Prior to joining the EAGL, seven of the eight schools had competed in the NCAA regionals. Towson, New Hampshire and West Virginia had all gone on to NCAA championship competition. Towson was ninth in the nation in 1990, while UNH qualified for nationals in 1994 and WVU made the trip in 1995. In 1982, Pitt produced the NCAA bars champion, Lisa Shirk. 2011 season A frenzied finish saw three teams claw at the league championship, but North Carolina successfully defended its title and emerged victorious with a winning team score of 195.3. The victory was the Tar Heels’ fifth overall and third in five seasons. New Hampshire finished just behind UNC with a score of 195.175, while Maryland, competing in its backyard on the campus of George Washington, in Washington, D.C., placed third with a total of 195.025 points. The Terrapins led all teams with three individual first-place finishes. Senior Abigail Adams won her second straight all-around title with score of 39.4; she also finished first on beam with a 9.925 mark. Adams’ teammate Ally Krikorian won the vault title with a 9.9 score. EAGL Gymnast of the Year and Outstanding Senior Gymnast, West Virginia’s Amy Bieski, won the bars title with a 9.825 mark, while Pitt’s Mallory Brewer finished first on floor with a 9.9 score; the title was the Panthers’ first individual floor win.
70 [ WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY ]
2010 season North Carolina captured its fourth EAGL title, and second in four seasons, at the 2010 EAGL Championship, in Durham, N.H. UNC finished first with a score of 196.025, while 2009 champion NC State finished in second place with 195.7 points. West Virginia finished in third place with 195.075 points. The Tar Heels and Wolfpack earned four individual titles apiece. NCSU senior Taylor Seaman won a championship-best three titles: vault (9.9), floor (9.925) and all-around (39.325). Maryland’s Abigail Williams and EAGL Scholar Athlete of the Year Kara Wright of UNC also finished first in the allaround. Additionally, Seaman shared the vault title with UNC’s Zoya Johnson, and the floor title with teammate Brooke Barr. EAGL Gymnast of the Year and Outstanding Senior Gymnast, UNC’s Christine Nguyen, won the beam title with a 9.875 score, while teammate Morgan Evans finished first on bars with a score of 9.9. For the second straight season, five EAGL teams advanced to NCAA Regional competition. WVU played host to the NCAA Southeast Regional Championships and also welcomed NCSU, while Maryland and New Hampshire advanced to the NCAA Northeastern Championships and UNC competed at the Southcentral Regional. The Mountaineers earned the best finish of all EAGL teams, as they scored 195.1 and finished in fourth place at the Southeast Regional. UNH also finished in fourth place, but the Wildcats scored 194.8 points. NCSU, UNC and UMD all finished in sixth place. Seaman qualified as an all-arounder for the 2010 NCAA Championships and was the league’s lone representative. She became the first NCSU gymnast, and the first EAGL gymnast since 2006, to earn All-America honors, taking seventh place on bars with a 9.875 score. 2009 season Defending champion West Virginia, NC State and North Carolina battled through eight rounds, but in the end the host Wolfpack came out on top and won their fourth EAGL championship in Raleigh, N.C., edging WVU, 195.7-195.5. The Tar Heels finished third with 194.825 points. The Mountaineers captured a championship-best six individual titles, with EAGL Outstanding Senior Gymnast Mehgan Morris finishing first on bars (9.85), floor (9.85) and all-around (39.3). She became the first Mountaineer to win the all-around title since All-American Janáe Cox did so in 2005, and only the second WVU gymnast to win three league titles at one championship (Umme Salim, 1998). WVU teammates, junior Chelsi Tabor and freshman Tina Maloney, tied for first on vault (9.9), while junior Shelly Purkat won the balance beam title (9.875). Three tied Morris for the bars title – NC State’s Lauren Deuser and Brittany Vontz, and Pitt’s Alix Croop – and two matched Purkat’s winning beam score - New Hampshire’s Chelsea Steinberg and Maryland’s Abigail Adams. Five EAGL teams advanced to the NCAA Regional competition, with WVU, NC State and UNC moving on to the Southeast Regional (Raleigh, N.C.), and New Hampshire and Maryland traveling to the Northeast Regional (Tuscaloosa, Ala.) The Mountaineers earned the highest regional finish of any league team, as they earned 194.225 points and finished fourth. UNC (fifth) and NC State (sixth) finished behind WVU, while UNH finished fifth and UMD finished sixth at their regional. Morris finished fifth in the all-around at the regional championship, while NC State’s Taylor Seaman won the floor exercise; both represented the EAGL at the national championship. Morris finished 18th in her preliminary session.