Fourth place was the popular finish for Ursinus sports. The gymnastics team finished their season this past weekend in Cortland New York with a fourth place finish at the NCGA Championships, falling short to the University of Wisconsin Lacrosse. The basketball team also took
fourth place at the Final Four National Championships in Salem Virginia on March 21 and 22,after being defeated in their two games.
The gymnastics team won the Eastern Conference Championships on March 15 qualifying them into Nationals. With a
great showing, and one of their top scores of the season, they achieved fourth place of six teams. Their score of 188.05 was only about a point away from the University of Wisconsin at Lacrosse who won the competition. The scores were close and the competition was tight.
The six teams competing in the competition were the best three from the East and from the west. On the east side were Ursinus College, the State University of Brockport taking 2nd place, and the State University of Cortland taking 3rd place. From the west were the champs from the University of Wisconsin at Lacrosse, the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater, and the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire.
The basketball team traveled further into their season then ever before; the bears haven’t made it to the final four since 1981. They played their first game against Amherst College on Friday the 21st and fell short. On Saturday the 22nd, they met top-ranked Hope College on the court losing 86-100.
Both the Gymnastics team and the Basketball team had excellent showings for Ursinus College. Individually, they both excelled as well.
For the lady Bears, Sophomore Olivia Oller holds the Cinderella story. She is now the individual NCGA National Champion, with a score of
38.3. This season was the first where she competed as an all around gymnast, doing all four of the events, vault,
bars, beam, and floor. Olivia says, “For me gymnastics is not just a sport but something I love to do... I guess what helpe
d me win was the love I have for the sport and the amount of fun I had with the team. For me winning was amazing, completely unexpected, and just the icing on the cake to an amazing season with the team!”
Senior Briana Morriss
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and Sophomore Kira Oldham-Curtis also placed in the top individual spot light. Kira taking 2nd place just below Olivia with a 38.25, and Briana taking 4th place with a 38.1. Individually, the Bears were on top.
On the court, the bears unfortunately had to take senior and all-time leading scorer Nick Shattuck out of the game right in the beginning. He has been playing on two bad ankles for the past two weekends and was forced to end his career with 1973 points.
Junior Guard John Noonan earned top points scoring 24, the team high and Sophomore Matt Howel with 13 points. Scoring 10 points each were sophomore Remy Cousart, senior Sean Butkus, and junior Eric Burnette.
Both excellent showings in 2008 for Ursinus College, the Gymnastics team and the Basketball team look forward to even more accomplishments in 2009.
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