DAVIS, Calif. -- UC Davis student-athletes Kelley Hebert, Alyssa Ito and Yasmine Yektaparast each were announced as individual qualifiers to the NCAA Corvallis Region women's gymnastics championship during Monday's selection show. Hebert will compete as an all-arounder while Ito and Yektaparast earned their spots as balance beam specialists.
The meet takes place at Oregon State's Gill Coliseum from April 4-6. Hebert and Ito will first compete in Friday's 2 p.m. session, while Yektaparast goes in the 7 p.m. evening session.
This marks the second time that Hebert, a sophomore human development major from Dublin, California, has advanced to the NCAA postseason. The two-time Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Gymnast of the Year made the Salt Lake City Regional last year as an all-around competitor.
A senior co-captain, Yektaparast also makes her second trip to the national bracket. The human development major from Petaluma earned a berth to the NCAA Seattle Regional as a sophomore in 2017, the same year she was also the alternate on floor exercise. Ito, a sophomore design student from Hacienda Heights, earns her first appearance in an NCAA regional. Impressively, Ito did not crack the Aggies' beam lineup until midway through her freshman year, but tied Hebert and San Jose State's Taylor Chan for second on the final MPSF standings in the event.
The top 36 teams based on their national qualifying score were selected for the four regional sites, with the top 16 seeded into the bracket. The Nos. 17-36 teams were distributed geographically, with nine teams competing at each of the four sites: Athens, Georgia; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Corvallis, Oregon. At each location, the two lowest-seeded teams will face on in a first-round dual, then join the other seven in two four-team, second-round sessions.
From the two first-round teams and the remaining national field (ranked 37 and lower), a total of 12 all-arounders and 16 event specialists were placed geographically into one of the four regional sites, with individuals from the same team remaining together. From each regional, the top two teams and top all-around competitor not from an advancing team will receive an automatic berth to the national championship. Additionally, the top event specialist (besides an advancing all-arounder or member of an advancing team) will move on to the national meet, which takes place April 19-20 in Fort Worth, Texas.
All four regionals will take place from Thursday, April 4 through Saturday, April 6. Oregon State will host the Corvallis Regional, which also features Florida, Denver, Boise State, Washington, Southern Utah, Stanford and Iowa. Utah State's Madison Ward-Sessions and San Jose State's Chan join Hebert among the three all-arounders in Corvallis.
Tickets for the NCAA Corvallis Regional are available at beavertickets.com.
