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SATURDAY, MARCH 27 --
Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Championships
Brougham Pavilion • Seattle, Wash. • 6:00 p.m. PST

The Seattle Pacific gymnasts have one final chance to boost their national qualifying score when they host the ninth-annual Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Championships, Saturday, March 27. The four-team meet starts at 6 p.m. Pacific Time at Brougham Pavilion and will determine the team and individual conference champions. The Falcons will be joined by Air Force and UC Davis along with defending MPSF champion Alaska Anchorage. The championship meet returns to the SPU campus for the first time since 2007 when the Falcons parlayed the home gym advantage to their second straight conference title. SPU needs to post a lofty score this week to solidify their position for a berth in the USAG Collegiate Championships on April 15-17 in Denton, Texas.

Ticket Talk
Tickets for the MPSF meet can be purchased at the Brougham Pavilion entrance on meet night. Tickets are priced at $7 for adults, $5 for children and senior citizens and $3 for SPU students or staff.

Follow the Action
Are you unable to be at Brougham Pavilion for Saturday's meet? You can still watch the action live via a free webcast at www.pennatlantic.com Fans can also track the meet scores via LiveStats at: www.spufalcons.com

The Field
The four-team MPSF Championships start the postseason slate that potentially includes three meets. SPU is the only NCAA Division II competitor in the MPSF. The Falcons are listed No. 62 in the overall NCAA rankings that are dominated by Division I schools. Joining SPU on Saturday will be defending MPSF champion Alaska Anchorage (No. 59, high score of 190.200), UC Davis (No. 42, 194.600) and Air Force (No. 67, 193.300). SPU was the MPSF runner-up the last two years after winning back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007. The NCAA Division I West Regional is April 10 at UCLA. The eight-team USAG Collegiate Championships are April 15-17 in Denton, Texas.

About the MPSF
The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) was established during the 1992-1993 academic year to serve the competitive needs of member institutions from the Big West, Pacific-10, Mountain West, Western Athletic and West Coast Conferences along with other selected universities in the western United States; and to provide championship competition for intercollegiate Olympic sports in a conference setting. The MPSF was originally formed to provide enhanced competition and championship opportunities for sports without conference affiliation. Since its inception, MPSF teams have won 49 NCAA team championships and many individual titles as well.

Recent Recap
Samantha Taylor posted career-high marks on the vault and beam on Mar. 19, and Brittany Malone and Stephanie Wagner also had career best scores as SPU notched a season-best total of 190.575 points in a home dual meet against Washington. The Huskies' winning score was 195.300. Taylor had a 9.60 vault and fourth-place score of 9.75 on beam, both career bests. Malone (9.65) and Wagner (9.60) also had career-high beam efforts. SPU's Anissa Madrid compiled a third-place all-around total of 37.550.

Gym Shorts
All 14 Falcons that competed this year posted a score of 9.50 or better in at least one event ... Junior Anissa Madrid ranks No. 6 among all USAG collegiate beam performers and is ranked No. 7 nationally in the all-around ... The Falcons had a season-high 190.575 in the last outing on Mar. 19, surpassing their previous best of 190.500 ... Sophomore Sherah Veron is SPU's top-ranked gymnast in two events in the USAG ratings. She compiled the team's best score of 9.750 on vault (No. 18 ranking) and tied Brittany Malone for SPU's best floor mark of 9.800 (No. 16).

Targeting Texas
The season started in Seattle. The Falcons hope it ends in Denton, Texas. That's the site of the 2010 USGA Collegiate Championships, April 15-17. The SPU gymnastics squad competed in 27 consecutive national championship meets before falling just short of a team-qualifying berth in 2009. They seek to start the streak again.

Proud History
Seattle Pacific is one of the country's premier NCAA Division II women's gymnastics programs, having won national championships in 1986, 1992 and 1997. The Falcons earned invitations to 27 consecutive championship meets (1982-2008) before narrowly missing a qualifying berth last season. SPU gymnasts have collected 22 national crowns and collected 147 All-America awards.

Coach Tindall
Laurel Tindall (Anderson) was there the very first time a group of Seattle Pacific gymnasts marched onto the competition floor in 1974. Now, 36 years later, she still is an integral part of a program that she helped nurture and lead to a prominent spot on the national scene since taking the coaching reigns in 1976. Whether as an athlete, coach or international-level judge, Tindall has spent a lot of time at the top of the gymnastics world. As she enters her 35th year as head coach, Tindall's SPU teams have won three national championships. Falcon athletes garnered 22 national crowns, one of which she earned on the vault in 1975. Tindall has been named the national Coach of the Year four times, most recently in 2003. And, in a tribute to all of her accomplishments in the Seattle Pacific gym, Tindall is a charter member of the Falcon Legends Hall of Fame. Tindall also operates the Falcon Gymnastics Center for local youths.

Strenuous Schedule
Seattle Pacific is an NCAA Division II member that competes alongside some Division I and II foes for the USA Gymnastics (USAG) Collegiate championship. The Falcons entire regular-season schedule is comprised of NCAA Division I opponents.

Season Preview
Youth still dominates the roster, but experience is in greater supply for the 2010 edition of Seattle Pacific gymnastics. The team is built around a 10-gymnast sophomore class that saw a great deal of competition last year in their collegiate debuts. The Falcons have just five juniors and no seniors. Laurel Tindall, in her 35th season as SPU's coach, is optimistic. “We've got some great talent. Our top three are reasonably strong on each event, it's just numbers four, five and six that we need to solidify.” The biggest task will be replacing uneven bars national champion Brianna Schwartz, SPU's top all-arounder in 2009. Helping fill that void is the full-time return of junior Anissa Madrid, who missed all but the final meet last year. Madrid posted the team's best all-around score (38.825) in 2008. “She's easily capable of winning nationals. She has all of the ingredients,” says Tindall. The Falcons add freshmen Stephanie Wagner and Ami Khauv to a bevy of event specialists in its pursuit of their 28th championship meet berth in the last 29 years. The bars lineup features sophomore Kaysha Heck, the bronze medalist at the 2009 USAG meet.

2009 MPSF Recap
Senior Brianna Schwartz placed second on the uneven bars and third in the all-around March 20, helping the Seattle Pacific gymnasts shatter their season-high team score in a runner-up performance at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championships at Colorado Springs, Colo. Alaska Anchorage compiled a score of 192.825 to win the MPSF title. The Seawolves are the third different conference champion in the last three years. UC Davis won the 2008 title after SPU captured back-to-back MPSF meet victories in 2006 and 2007. The Falcons' second-place mark of 191.700 was nearly two points higher than their previous season high of 189.875 recorded at home on Feb. 27. UC Davis had a third-place score of 191.425 and host Air Force was fourth at 191.050. Abbey Rogers of Air Force tallied a winning all-around effort of 38.900, including the meet's top scores on the beam (9.850) and floor (9.825). Alaska's Leah Wilson placed second in the all-around at 38.775. Schwartz registered a third-place mark of 38.575, the best all-around score in 2009 by an SPU gymnast. She tied Aftan Boudreaux of Air Force for second with a bars mark of 9.725. Kristy Boswell of Anchorage won the bars with a 9.80. SPU sophomore Laura Willis topped the 38-point plateau for the fourth time with a fifth-place score of 38.100. Anissa Madrid, an SPU sophomore, made her 2009 debut and was seventh among all-around competitors with a mark of 37.275. Madrid was the Falcons top vaulter, turning in a score of 9.650. SPU freshman Sherah Veron had a second-place performance of 9.80 on the floor, matching her season high. Falcons' freshman Aditi Kulkarni received a career-high 9.675 on beam to lead the team to a season-best effort of 47.475 on that apparatus.

2009 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships
Friday, March 20 • Cadet West Gym • Colorado Springs, Colo.

Team Scores -- 1, Alaska Anchorage, 192.825; 2, Seattle Pacific, 191.700; 3, UC Davis, 191.425; 4, Air Force, 191.050.

All-Around -- 1, Abbey Rogers, USAF, 38.900; 2, Leah Wilson, UAA, 38.775; 3, Brianna Schwartz, SPU, 38.575.

Vault -- 1(tie), Lauren Agostino, UAA, and Stacy Nicolini, UCD, 9.800; 3, Katie Shetley, USAF, 9.775. 10, Anissa Madrid, SPU, 9.650.

Uneven Bars -- 1, Kristy Boswell, UAA, 9.800; 2(tie), Brianna Schwartz, SPU, and Aftan Boudreaux, USAF, 9.725.

Balance Beam -- 1, Abbey Rogers, USAF, 9.850; 2, Kayla Kincade, USAF, 9.825; 3, Leah Wilson, UAA, 9.775; 9, Aditi Kulkarni, SPU, 9.675.

Floor Exercise -- 1, Abbey Rogers, USAF, 9.825; 2, Sherah Veron, SPU, 9.800; 3, Andi Dolinsky, UCD, 9.775.