Lead Image by Jeff Bartee
SEATTLE – Elizabeth Price won the NCAA Seattle Regional title on bars but Stanford's season came to a close as it finished fourth overall Saturday evening.
Price tied her career high of 9.975 on bars to claim the individual event victory and earn an automatic bid to the national competition in St. Louis on April 14. She has scored 9.900 or higher on bars in eight-of-10 meets and claimed eight individual event victories this season.
The Cardinal finished the meet with a 195.575 team score to place fourth. It is only the second time in the past 11 years Stanford has not qualified to the NCAA Championships.
The bars routine that sent @elizabeth_ebee to the NCAA Championships. #GoStanford https://t.co/VPOdMQmnot
— Stanford Gymnastics (@StanfordWGym) April 2, 2017
Elizabeth Price tied her career high of 9.975 on bars to win the regional individual title.
The fourth-place finish concludes the careers of Stanford's four seniors – Rachel Daum, Danielle McNair, Nicolette McNair and Haley Spector. The quartet were instrumental in the Cardinal's success during their four years that included three NCAA Championships appearances and a 2015 Super Six berth.
Oklahoma finished first in the regional with a 198.075, followed by Washington (196.550) to earn NCAA Championships berths. Kentucky (196.200) finished third, followed by Stanford, BYU (195.025) and Utah State (194.850).
Along with her event victory on bars, Price tied for fourth on vault (9.900) and tied for sixth on floor (9.850).
Rachel Daum and Kaylee Cole also tied for sixth on floor with scores of 9.850. Nicolette McNair registered a top-10 finish on bars, tying for seventh with a 9.875.
Stanford got off to a quality start on beam with each of its first three gymnasts scoring 9.750 or higher. However, two of the Cardinal's final three gymnasts missed their routines and Stanford had to count a fall.
The Cardinal counted a fall on floor as well. Price, Daum and Cole scored 9.850, while Haley Spector went 9.775. Despite their quality routines, it was not quite enough to keep pace with the top three teams.
Stanford finished strong with quality performances in its final two rotations on vault and bars.
Price paced the Cardinal on vault with a 9.900 and was followed by Cole and Aleeza Yu who both went 9.800.
Stanford had its strongest showing of the day on bars, producing a 49.100. Price won the event with a season-best 9.975. Nicolette McNair tied for seventh with a 9.875 and was followed by Dare Maxwell who tallied a 9.825.
The strong finish was not quite enough to propel the Cardinal into one of the top two positions for an NCAA Championships berth.
The future remains bright for the Cardinal, which will return 14 routines from its NCAA Seattle Regional squad and will welcome large and talented freshman class.