The 2016 NCAA women's gymnastics tournament were held April 15–16, 2016, at the Fort Worth Convention Center in Fort Worth, Texas.[1] The 2016 edition marks the second consecutive time the Championship has been held in Fort Worth; this only the second time it has been held in the state of Texas.[2] Following the 2016 championship, Fort Worth would be where the NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championship is held in 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, and 2023.[2] The team competition was won by Oklahoma with a score 197.675.
Qualification and selection process
Selection process
The championship provides for a field of 36 teams determined based on their regional qualifying score and seeded by the NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Committee. Additionally, 24 all-around competitors and 48 individual event specialists (12 on each piece) are eligible to advance to Regionals – as long as they're on a non-qualifying team.[3]
Regionals
As a result, six NCAA Regional competitions – all of which contain 6 teams, 4 all-around competitors and 2 individual event specialists per event (8 in total) – took place on April 2, 2016.[4] The selection show to announce the placements for teams and individuals will take place during the weekend of March 25–27, 2016.
Based on their Regional Qualifying Score (RQS), the top 18 out of 36 teams are assigned to compete at one of the 6 NCAA regional championship locations.[5] The remaining 18 teams are divided into 3 groups, with the highest ranked teams receiving priority, and placed at a regional location based on location proximity.[5] Gymnasts who competed as specialists were assigned to a location based on location proximity.[5]
Tuscaloosa Regional
The Tuscaloosa Regional was held at the Coleman Coliseum, on the campus of the University of Alabama; it was hosted by the Alabama Crimson Tide gymnastics team.[6]1st - Alabama (197.125), 2nd - California (195.925), Boise State (195.750), Kentucky (195.725), West Virginia (194.250) and Bowling Green (193.850).[7]
Alabama had the highest score in each of the events except for balance beam in which they received 2nd place.[8]
This regionals was also Alabama's 34th consecutive regionals.
Alex Hyland (Kentucky) and Sidney Dukes (Kentucky) were all-around individual qualifiers.[9]
Auburn and Stanford had a tie in their overall scores; however, Auburn became the victor after further evaluation.
Nicole Artz (Michigan) and Brianna Brown (Michigan) were all-around qualifiers.[9]
Talia Chiarelli (Michigan), Rachel Slocum (Eastern Michigan), Briannah Tsang (Penn State), and Lindsay Offutt (Pittsburgh) all qualified for individual events.[9]
Oklahoma won their 7th consecutive regional title and qualified for the 13th consecutive NCAA championship. This team also received the highest team score among all regional championships.
Mollie Drenth (Iowa) and Amanda Wellick (Arkansas) were all-around qualifiers.
This was the only 2016 regional championship to not have an individual event qualifier.[9]
NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championship
On April 15, 2016 top two finishers from the six regions competed to advance to the national team title meet on April 16, 2016. The top three finishers of each session form the Super Six Team.