North Carolina State Wins EAGL Conference Gymnastics Meet

Though no mascots were present at the EAGL, a gymnastics only collegiate conference which will reportedly cease to exist at the end of the season on the campus of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, not even Ramses, the famous mascot for UNC, North Carolina State edged out Maryland and Pittsburgh to win the eight-team meet.

The Wolfpack won the meet with a score of 195.175. The second place Terrapins scored a 195.1 and the third place Panthers scored 194.875.  The George Washington University Colonials, helped greatly by an outstanding all-around performance from Betsy Zander, finished fourth with a score of 194.75 and the host Tar Heels came away with a 194.225 score and a fifth place finish.

The 'Pack, a team that will compete in their 11th NCAA regional meet when they compete at Ohio State next Saturday, were lead by stand-out junior Stephanie Ouellette (pictured top) who scored a 9.875 on floor and a 9.75on vault, paving the way for three-way second place finish in the all around along with Zander and Kayla Gray from the University of New Hampshire.

Ouellette's teammate and fellow junior Diahanna Ham (pictured bottom) scored a 9.875 on vault, a 9.8 on floor and a 9.775 on beam to finish in a two-way tie for fifth place in the all around along with UNC gymnast Elizabeth Durkac, the EAGL gymnast of the year and the top finisher for the 'Heels.

Rachel Fincham, a senior for the team, won bars with a 9.85.

Alyssa Adrian from Pitt was the all around individual champion with a 39.35 total.

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Terps, Tar Heels and Wolfpack Get Ready for Last EAGL Meet

The EAGL Conference, a gymnastics-only conference, will be holding its final championship meet at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, NC, on Saturday. The conference consists of Maryland, UNC, Rutgers, North Carolina State, George Washington University, Pittsburgh, Towson (correct us if we are wrong on that) and the University of New Hampshire.

West Virginia, which had won the most EAGL championships, left for the Big 12 Conference. There will be an ACC Gymnastics Conference for gymnastics next year, from what we've heard through the grapevine, but ACC and EAGL-member school Maryland is leaving for the Big 10 as is current EAGL and Big East-member Rutgers. So, this will mean that only UNC, North Carolina State and Pitt, which will join the ACC next year, will be the three schools in this conference.

Confused?! Yes, so are we.

Editorializing about college sports aside, let's look at the EAGL gymnasts who won conference honors in the last regular season week for college gymnastics.

Stephanie Giameo, a sophomore from Roselle Park, NJ, (pictured on top) from the University of Maryland, won the EAGL gymnast of the week this year for the second time. Giameo scored a 39.1 in the all-around during a road meet at West Virginia, which also featured EAGL rival Rutgers.

On Sunday, Giameo's Terps headed just south of College Park, Md., to Washington, DC, where they won a four-school meet over host George Washington, Towson and Brown. In that meet, Giameo scored a 39.25 in the all-around.

Over the weekend, UNC senior Elizabeth Durkac of Yorktown, Va., who has won four EAGL Gymnast of the Week honors, helped her Tar Heels win a home meet over visiting Penn. The Heels scored a 194.075 in the meet.(Ramese, the UNC mascot is pictured in the center).

The 'Heels will once again face their main conference rivals North Carolina State during the EAGLs on Saturday. UNC edged out N.C. State when the two schools last meet during a home meet on Feb. 22.

The Wolfpack were also at home over the weekend, but they faced the challenged of hosting two SEC powers: The first meet was against the LSU Tigers on Friday, followed by a visit from Georgia, which has won the most NCAA titles in women's gymnastics.

Though the Pack did not pull off a major upset in either home meet despite an impressive outing against the GymDawgs , Rachel Fincham, a senior from Gambrills, Md., (pictured bottom) earned EAGL Specialist of the Week honors. Fincham scored a 98.5 on beam and a 9.8 on bars against LSU. She then scored a 9.9 on bars and a 9.7 on beam versus Georgia.

Fincham's teammate Britti Watkins, a freshman from Albany, NY, whose solid scores included a 9.9 on vault against LSU,  was named EAGL Newcomer of the Week.

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Friday Night Tweets: Balance Beams and Ski Slopes

It was our hope to have at least one sports every week on this blog. Hmmmmm. In reality, there are perhaps too many distractions for that. But, since this is one of these "Applebees Fridays," you know one in which you had plans and for one reason or another none of them came to be (for those of you in Nepal: Applebees is an American chain restaurant. There are probably eight in Scranton, Pa.), we thought we'd post various tweets, many of which deal with collegiate or pro athletics.

One thing we found out, but not through Twitter, was that the host University of North Carolina Tar Heels women's gymnastics team edged out the North Carolina Wolfpack by a 195.050-194.875 score. For the visiting 'Pack,' junior Diahanna Ham posted a 9.9 on bars. We didn't see results on the Tar Heels gymnastics site, but we did learn that senior Elizabeth Durkac, from Yorktown, Va.,(pictured center) was named EAGL Conference Gymnast of the Week.

Here are the Friday Night Tweets; we have added some things for clarity:

1) Seattle Weekly @seatlleweekly: "Study: Young adults carry less debt, but it might not be a good thing."

2) Pittsburgh Penguins @penguins: "Things are getting chippy @ConsolEnergyCtr. Tomas Kopecky of the Panthers is in the box for slashing. #Pens now on the PowerPlay. (Spoiler Alert: The Penguins won their home game over the Florida Panthers 3-1; Kopecky is from Slovakia).

3) Auburn Gymnastics @Augymnastics: "Abbey Habitcht of Auburn up next with a small check on her leap series, an awesome series, and a small hop on her dismount." (Auburn was facing LSU in a home meet tonight; no report on which team won the meet).

4) Visit Colorado @Colorado:" Have you ever been lucky enough to ski in a tee shirt? Come to Colorado and you can!" (This is the reason we have an image of Jamaican aerial skier Errol Kerr, top image, even though he is not from Colorado).

5) WBTV-News @WBTV-News (WBTV is the CBS-affiliate in Charlotte, NC): "Tractor trailer crash shuts down North Bound I-77 for several hours."

6) University of Washington Gymnastics @UWGymnastics: "Loud roar in here during starting lineups for Arizona natives and UW freshmen Keirsten Graber and Sheridan Metcalf. And, we mean LOUD!" (UW was facing Arizona State in a road meet).

7) The Baltimore Sun @baltimoresun: "Oscar trivia: Nearly half of this year's acting nominees are previous Oscar winners."

8) BYU Lacrosse @BYULacrosse: "1 more hour until the big game! We want to hear some score predictions." (Brigham Young is facing Chapman, a school in Las Vegas, as we are posting this).

9) WSOC Weather @WSOCWeather (WSOC is the Charlotte, NC, affiliate for ABC): "Ever wonder what it is like to live in London or Seattle, step outside."

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