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Gymbacks Eye 2nd Straight Super Six Appearance

After a rough start to the season the Arkansas Gymnastics team turned things around and are headed to the NCAA National Meet.

The Arkansas Gymnastics team came into the season with high hopes of winning the program's first ever National Championship.  Those goals were put on the back burner after the squad got off to a rough start.  The team lost five of their first six meets and needed to turn things around in order to have a chance of achieving their goals.

"This year has been a roller coaster," said senior Kelci Lewis.  "It started out kind of rough for us, but we definitely hit our strides around Alabama and took off. Now we are ending this year in and amazing way and I'm really excited."

After tying Alabama, who was ranked fourth nationally at the time, the team began to steadily improve their scores every meet. The team improved enough and qualified for the NCAA Regional Tournament.  They received a three seed in the Oregon State NCAA Regional Meet.  They went into the meet hoping to shock everyone and get a chance to attend the program's sixth straight National Meet.

"We looked at the scores and we knew we had made it for sure," said Junior Katherine Grable.  "I started crying and it was such a relief to have such a rough season yet go this far."

As the team gets ready to head to UCLA for the National Meet they have one goal in mind and that's to make it to the Super Six for the second straight year.  They know it's not going to be an easy task and that they are going to have to do the little things right in order to achieve there goal.

We need to hit our handstands, stick our dismounts and have really clean routines in order to make it to the Super Six," said Co-Head Coach Rene Lyst.

"We have been working on all the little details and getting everyone pumped," said Lewis.  "I think the most important thing is staying positive and going out there and performing our best gymnastics."

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