Women Gymnasts Prepare for Regional Championships

Cal State Fullerton has advanced to the women’s regional gymnastics championships for the 20th time in the 21 seasons Lynn Rogers has been head coach, but Rogers says “it seems to get tougher every year.”

Regardless, the Titans will join Oregon State, UCLA, Stanford, Washington, California and Boise State in the seven-team field Saturday at UCLA. Fullerton qualified for the final spot by little more than a tenth of a point ahead of San Jose State.

“This year we made it just by the skin of our teeth,” Rogers said, “but at least we made it.”

Rogers says there are several reasons it has become more difficult, but the bottom line is a stronger commitment to the sport by more schools.

“A lot of schools have been putting more money into their programs since Title 9 came into effect,” Rogers said. “The NCAA also has passed legislation that allows each school to give 12 scholarships now instead of 10, and that’s made it more difficult for us.

“Now, many top programs are able to go back into the talent pool and are recruiting gymnasts they wouldn’t have had scholarships for in the past. Recruiting has become more difficult for us since that happened.”

Fullerton reached the national championship meet in 13 of the first 15 years after Rogers started the program in 1976, winning the national title in 1979. But the Titans have failed to advance the last five years.

Rogers had been optimistic that that might change this season, but injuries to Alexis Lott, Holly Tennison and Natalie Meyer virtually ended those hopes.

The Titans managed to qualify for the regional despite not having a strong performance in the Big West Conference meet. They were third behind Utah State and Boise State.

“We were all disappointed by that,” sophomore Michelle Lotta said. “I think we’re all determined to work hard this week and have a better performance in the regionals. We definitely want to beat Boise State this time, and possibly some of those other schools.”

The regional will be the final college meet for Cristi Clifford if she fails to qualify for the nationals. She is the only senior on this year’s team.

*

The Titan baseball team, which lost only twice in its first 33 games this season, lost two of three in its Big West Conference series at New Mexico State last weekend.

Coach Augie Garrido says he believes the Titans lost some focus in the series.

“Our offensive play was affected by the expectation levels we set,” Garrido said. “That expectation level was that we were going to hit a lot of home runs because of their ball park and the wind blowing straight out there, so we were playing more of a long-ball game.”

But it wasn’t successful. The Titans lost two one-run games, 6-5, Thursday and, 7-6, in the first game of a doubleheader Saturday. Fullerton avoided a sweep with a 9-4 victory in the second game of the doubleheader after a rainout on Friday.

“We weren’t getting our leadoff runners on base,” Garrido said. “In our style of baseball, the pressure on the other team comes from getting our leadoff batters on base a high percentage of the time, and that didn’t happen consistently enough.

“New Mexico State played the kind of baseball we like to play. They played hard and aggressively. And our pitchers got caught up in expectations of a long-ball game, and they pitched defensively, not aggressively.”

The Titans (33-4) remain ranked No. 1 by Baseball America but dropped to No. 2 in Collegiate Baseball’s ratings.

Fullerton hosts Nevada in a three-game Big West series beginning Friday night at Titan Field. The Titans, 7-2 in the conference, still are alone in first, thanks to a Nevada Las Vegas sweep of Long Beach State last weekend.

*

The Titan softball team also is in a tight race for the Big West lead.

Long Beach State is 13-5 in the conference with the Titans second at 12-6. Utah State is third at 12-8, followed by Nevada Las Vegas at 10-7-1.

Fullerton faces nonconference opponents this weekend, meeting Cal Poly San Luis Obispo at home Saturday in a doubleheader that begins at 1 p.m., then plays at Fresno State Sunday.

The Titans are 32-15 for the season. Brandi Isgar (15-9) is fourth in the Big West with a 1.46 earned run average. Outfielder Senetha Thomas leads the Titans in batting at .374, with a team-leading nine home runs and 33 runs batted in.

Titan Notes

Nate Heggenberger was Fullerton’s only event winner in the Big West Challenge Cup track meet Saturday at UC Santa Barbara. Heggenberger won the 800 meters in 1:53.06. . . . Fullerton’s cheerleaders finished ninth in dance-team competition in the National Cheerleading Assn. contest last weekend in Daytona Beach. Fla. Kansas was first, followed by Colorado State and Kentucky.. . . . The Fullerton-USC baseball game next Tuesday night at USC is scheduled to be televised on Prime Sports.. . . .Fullerton will have a team competing in the Intercollegiate Bowling Championships this week in Kansas City. Team members are Jeff May, John Mongillo, Vayle Floria, Brent Breidinger and Jamie Spencer. . . .The women’s basketball team will have its postseason awards dinner at 7 p.m. April 18 at The Plantation Restaurant in Fullerton.