University Park, Pa. — Penn State sophomore women’s gymnast Sharaya Musser (Colorado Springs, Colo.) is set to represent the Nittany Lions at the 2011 NCAA National Championships on April 15-17 at Kent State University. Musser qualified as an individual all-around competitor after finishing third in the all-around at the NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional Championship on April 2 at Alabama’s Coleman Coliseum.
Musser will compete in the first session of the NCAA Championships, slated for Friday, April 15 at noon in Kent State’s Wolstein Center. Musser, who will compete with UCLA, will open the meet with a bye before moving to floor for rotation two. From there, she heads to vault for the third rotation before another bye. Musser will compete on bars in the fifth rotation and close out session one on beam.
A 2011 First Team All-Big Ten honoree, Musser scored a 39.425 in the all-around at regionals, which is the leading score of the 12 individual qualifiers. While guiding Penn State to a third place finish at regionals, Musser placed in the top five on three events, including a second place finish on vault, a third place finish on the uneven bars and a fifth place finish on beam. A four-time Big Ten Gymnast of the Week this season, Musser has been a consistent threat for the Nittany Lions. She finished in the top two in the all-around in 10 of 11 meets this season prior to regionals. She also finished in the top three on beam in all 11 meets. Heading into regionals, Musser ranked first nationally in the all-around and was also ranked in the top 10 on each event.
The women’s gymnastics championships consist of 12 teams and 12 all-around competitors (who are not on a qualifying team) and individual event specialist. The top two teams and the top two all-arounders from each of the six regionals received automatic berths to the national championships.
Team semifinal and all-around competition will be conducted in two sessions Friday, April 15 at noon and 6 p.m. The top three teams from each semifinal will advance to the Super Six competition on Saturday, April 16 at 4 p.m. The top four individuals from each session in each event (plus ties) from the preliminary team and all-around competition will compete in the individual-event competition Sunday, April 17 at 1 p.m.
