• COMPLETE RELEASE (pdf)   |   • VIDEO: COACH LAUREL TINDALL

FRIDAY, JANUARY 12
UC Davis at Seattle Pacific, 7:00 p.m. PST
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
 
• Webcast: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe1iS12FsEzoRas8fmcWzaA/live
• Live Scoring: http://static.spufalcons.com/custompages/gym/2018/UCD_01122018.htm
 
Seattle Pacific vaults into the 2018 women's gymnastics season at home this week against a formidable foe. The Falcons host UC Davis on Friday, Jan. 12 at 7 p.m. in Brougham Pavilion. The Aggies are the first of 14 NCAA Division I opponents on the schedule for Division II SPU. This is the 45th season of intercollegiate gymnastics competition at Seattle Pacific and the 43rd with Coach Laurel Tindall at the helm. Friday marks the first of four regular-season home meets for the Falcons, who entertain Lindenwood and Wisconsin-Eau Claire on Jan. 26, Alaska Anchorage and Sacramento State on Feb. 23 and Air Force on March 17.
 
Get Your Tickets
Tickets to attend Seattle Pacific gymnastics events are available at Brougham Pavilion on meet nights and are priced at $7 for adults and $4 for students and senior citizens. Groups of 10 or more may qualify for special general admission rates by calling (206) 281-2085 in advance. SPU students and staff are admitted free with valid i.d.
 
Live Webcast
If you can't get to Brougham Pavilion, watch the meet live on the internet at:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe1iS12FsEzoRas8fmcWzaA/live 
 
Scouting UC Davis
The Aggies started the season on Monday at the NorCal Classic in Palo Alto. They posted a fourth-place score of 194.400, finishing ahead of Sacramento State and behind California, Stanford and San Jose State. Davis was the runner-up at the 2017 MPSF Championships, finishing two-tenths behind conference champion San Jose State. SPU was fifth. The Aggies visited SPU for 10 consecutive seasons from 2007 to 2016 before skipping their annual trip to Seattle in 2017.
 
Gym Shorts
Five Falcons earned All-America acclaim in seven categories at the 2017 USAGym Championships, including returnee Darian Burns, who was the national co-champion on the floor exercise ... The SPU roster lists just one senior, Brittany Atchison ... Twelve of the 16 gymnasts on the roster are underclassmen and just three are juniors: Kylee Gauna, Carly Kano, Itzia San Roman.


 
2017 Recap
The Falcons made their eighth straight USA Gymnastics Championships appearance and finished fifth in the national meet April 7-9 at their own Brougham Pavilion. SPU's Darian Burns qualified for individual event finals on the vault, uneven bars and floor exercise. She capped her freshman season with a season-best 9.900 to share national championship honors with Bridgeport's Brianna Comport. Burns was seventh on the vault and bars. Senior Kristi Hayashida placed fourth on the beam, while three other Falcons reached the event finals; Ariana Harger (floor, 12th, 9.650), Lauren Glover (floor, 14th, 9.575) and Breanna Beltran (bars, 15th, 9.625). SPU achieved a season-high score of 194.100 at Washington in the final regular-season meet and finished fifth at the MPSF Championships with a mark of 192.775.
 
Proud History
From the very first meet way back in 1974 to a run of 20 consecutive top-four finishes at nationals, including championships in 1986, 1992 and 1997, Seattle Pacific has made the kind of lasting impression that few programs anywhere can match. The Falcons earned invitations to 35 of the last 36 championship meets (1982-2008, 2010-2017). They narrowly missed a qualifying berth in 2009. SPU gymnasts have won 31 national individual crowns and collected 207 All-America awards.
 
2018 Preview
Youth will be served in generous portions at Seattle Pacific gymnastics meets this season. Just one senior (Brittany Atchison) and three juniors appear on the 16-gymast roster that features 12 underclassmen -- six freshmen and six sophomores. Opportunities will be plentiful for young Falcons to soar, like current sophomore Darian Burns did in her first collegiate campaign. Burns was the team's top all-arounder in her inaugural meet and concluded the season by winning the floor exercise national championship with a season-best score of 9.90. Junior Itzia San Roman was a significant three-event specialist who will compete in the all-around after adding the bars to her repertoire. She joins the lineup that features sophomore Sienna Brane, who has a 9.75 on the bars to her credit. Another sophomore, Miyuki Matsune, excelled on bars, beam and floor and may join the vault crew to provide another all-arounder. The vault group includes sophomore Lena Wirth, who topped out at 9.750 last year. Many members of the stellar group of six newcomers will likely contribute immediately. All six are from different states, none of them from Washington: Jadacie Durst (Nevada), Autumn Huskie (Colorado), Haven Lanzador (Ohio), Kylie Reese (Oregon), Shelbi Spivey (Texas) and McKenna Zimmermann (California). SPU is in pursuit of its 36th championship meet berth in the last 37 years, all of them under 43rd-year coach Laurel Tindall. She is an SPU graduate (1975), as are her assistant coaches, Sarah Jean Marshall (2007) and Deni Maxwell (1998). The Falcons won team national championships in 1986, 1992 and 1997. They take on an ambitious schedule that includes 14 NCAA Division I opponents. The Division II Falcons seek to improve upon the fifth-place national result they accomplished at the 2017 USAGym meet.
 
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, more than four decades 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 43rd year as head coach, Tindall's SPU teams have won three national championships (1997, 1992, 1986). Falcon athletes garnered 31 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 SPU gym, Tindall was a charter member of the Falcon Legends Hall of Fame. She also operates the Falcon Gymnastics Center for local youth.
 
Home Sweet Brougham
The Falcons host four home meets at Brougham Pavilion on the Seattle Pacific campus. The arena is located at the corner of Third Avenue West and Nickerson Street (3414 Third Ave. W, Seattle, WA, 98119). Brougham has hosted the national championship meet four times, most recently in 2017 when the Falcons finished fifth. Along with the Jan. 12 home opener, SPU hosts Lindenwood and Wisconsin-Eau Claire on Jan. 26, Alaska Anchorage and Sacramento State on Feb. 23 and Air Force on March 17.
 
Next Week
The Falcons travel to Idaho for a quad meet with Denver, Illinois-Chicago and host Boise State. The meet starts at 6 p.m. Pacific Time (7 p.m. Mountain) at Taco Bell Arena.