High School of the Week- Marquette High School in Chesterfield, Missouri

Sticking with the Show-Me State (see last entry; that's Missouri's nickname for those of you surfing in Mongolia), our designated High School of the Week is Marquette High School in Chesterfield, Mo., which is a suburb of St. Louis.

We got the idea to go with Marquette High School because it is the alma mater of University of Missouri gymnast Tori Howard. The sophomore turned 19 on June 21. The first significant home meet for the Tigers' gym team will be against Nebraska on Feb.4.

As for Marquette High School, the principal is Greg Matthison. The school colors are blue and green, and the nickname (if you haven't guessed?!) is The Mustangs.

Things We Learned on Twitter Today- Senator Talks Sports

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), one of our entries in the now-defunct Know Your Congressional Rep and Senators series (that was as popular as Porky Pig cartoons in Pakistan), tweeted tonight that she was delighted to see her beloved University of Missouri tigers stun top-ranked Oklahoma in college football:

"WE WON!!! So special to see The Tigers beat those Sooners!! So much fun. And, we deserved to win."

Of course, this being the political the right-wing web site fireandreamitchell.com, which presumably believes everyone to the left of Newt Gingrich is as radical as Che Guevara, cited the Missouri senator and made her out to be The Joker from "Batman."

And, to think some 45 percent of my fellow Americans share this idiotic far-right political views, especially in places like the tiny Shenandoah Valley hamlet of Toms Brook, Va.!

NCAA Women's Gymnastics Regionals Surprise...?!

The NCAA Women's Gymnastics Regional Meets were held across the country on Saturday at six different campuses. The astonighing result came from Columbia, Mo., on the University of Missouri's floor where five-time defending national Georgia failed to qualify for the NCAA championships to be held in two weeks in Gainesville, Fla.

The home-team Tigers (mascot pictured here) pulled off the upset and won the meet thanks to a very impressive performance from their standout gymnast Sarah Shire who scored a 39.625 and won the all around competition. Oregon State won a tie-breaker over Georgia to join Missouri at nationals.

In Morgantown, WVa, Stanford won the regionals with a score of 196.775 thanks to Carly Juniga (pictured here on beam) who was the team's top scorer. Kylee Botterman from the University of Michigan won the all-around in West Virginia with a 39.55 and she helped the Wolverines advance as well.

Taylor Seaman of North Carolina State qualified as an all-around gymnast for Gainesville at the West Virginia meet even though her team will not advance with her.

In Lexington, Ky., Alabama edged out Nebraska with a score of 197.4-195.975. Both teams advance. Geralen Stack-Eaton won the all-around for the Crimson Tide and her teammate Ashley Priess finished second.

The other six teams to advance to Florida were first-place finishers University of Florida, University of Oklahoma and UCLA as well as second-place finishers Utah, LSU and Arkansas.

Kudos to Christine Nguyen of UNC

One of our favorite sports to blog about both here and on "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Times" is women's collegiate gymnastics. And, since we are based in the Tarheel State, we frequently cover both the gymnastic squdas for the University of North Carolina Tarheels' team as well as the North Carolina State Wolfpacks.

The two teams are part of the EAGL Gymnastics Conference which is mostly made up of Big East and ACC schools (the Univeristy of Maryland is the only other ACC school with a women's gymnastics team). Other schools in the EAGL Conference include West Virginia University, the University of Pittsburgh and Rutgers University.

This year the University of New Hampshire, also an EAGL member, hosted the conference meet in Durham, NH, which is a bit ironic since Durham, NC, the town where Duke University is located, is the place where most Tarheels sports teams play out their most-aniticipated matchups of the year. But, since Duke has not had a women's gymnastics team in several decades, the 'Heels simply have to look forward to their meets with NC State.

The Tarheels (ranked 36th nationally) not only won this year's EAGL meet, but at a banquet held prior to the gymnastics event, UNC's senior gymnast Christine Nguyen of Plano, Tex., was named EAGL Gymnast of the Year for a third consecutive year.

Her fellow senior teammate Kara Wright was also honored as EAGL SCholar-Athlete of the Year. To top it off, Wright won the all-around competition at the conference championships as well.

Senior Tina Jacobs was named team MVP for the Tarheels.

Nguyen's 9.767 average on the balance beam was the highest in the EAGL this year. She also averaged a 39.028 in all-arounds throughout the season. Nguyen was the only gymnast in the EAGL to perform such a feat. The Tarheel gymnast also earned all-EAGL honors for her performances on the uneven bars, the balance beam and the floor exercise.

Wright was first-team EAGL on vault with a 9.803 average throught the year.

Coach Derek Galvin said he was extremely happy for both Nguyen and Wright, according to the team's official web site.

The Tarheels travel to The University of Missouri this weekend for a regional meet, which surprised Galvin since that is quite a distance from Chapel Hill, NC.

According to the University of Missouri's gymnastics web site, the 15th ranked Tigers will also host five-time defending champion Georgia (currently ranked fifth), Oregon State (ranked eighth), Minnesota (ranked 25th) and Iowa (ranked 30th).