tl19900412_000 "Vol. 85 No. 10 ""Required Reading"" April 12, 1990 I 0 W c)1 1 Published weekly by the students of Towson State University, '4 -111w-4-1 - =MD 4 Against all odds Gymnasts grab 1st national bid Towson by Mat Schlissel Staff Rporter Some of the best things in life come unexpectedly. Before last Wednesday, Towson State University gymnastics head coach Dick Filbert didn't think his team had a shot at the Nationals. On Wednesday , he found out that the team was still ranked 19th ( he expected them to slip) and had a mathe-matical shot at the Nationals for the first time. The Tigers went down to the Southeast Regionals with basi-cally nothing to lose. They were seeded third behind powerhous-es Georgia and Florida. Even if the Tigers were to excel, they had to expect some of the teams rated ahead of them to falter. Georgia finished with a sparkling, 193.35 to capture the meet. Host Florida came in sec-ond with a 190.425 score, which was followed by Kentucky (188.825). lbwson State's fourth place finish might not seem like much, but their score of 188.775 (second-best in team history) was enough to put them in their very first NCAA National Championship. TSU's regional qualifying score of 187.44 was better than the schools that just missed the cut like Kentucky, Arizona State, BYU and Oklahoma. The Tigers did not make the Nationals solely on their perfor-mance at the regionals. They received �an at-large bid, because of their ability to peak at the right time, and to score big at the ""money"" meets (Md. State, ECAC, etc.). ""We'll put all of our cards on the table. We are one of the 12 best teams in the nation."" �Dick Filbert Still, there was doubt after the meet in Florida whether TSU would make the Nationals. ""I talked to (Associative Sports Information Director) Dan (O'Connnell) right after the meet,"" said Filbert. ""Dan said, 'What do you think?""' I said we got a chance, but Dan shook his head. I said our competition isn't the teams in this room; its all the teams who are in the other regionals. Some of them are going to crash."" ""(Asst. coach) Linda (LaMoni-ca) and I talked about coming out of the regionals at 18th, or 17th place. We didn't expect to make it. But when we left the arena, we were still saying it is possible."" Finally, following the Florida meet Filbert received a phone call at 2:30 am. The Georgia coach had called to let the team know they had been invited to Oregon State. The ""dream"" season continued. Filbert and the team were very pleased that they got the chance to start on beam. 'The kids really knew what they had to do on beam,"" said Filbert. ""They had to stay up there."" And stay on they did. Senior tri-captain Stephanie St. Angelo (9.325), junior Anne Sugden (9.15) and freshman Janine Spezio (9.3) started off by hitting their routines. Then, both senior tri-captain Lori Salindong and junior Tandy Knight, unexpect-edly fell on their mounts. Sopho-more Wendy Weaver then picked up the team with a 9.525. Still, the 'Tigers knew they had to pick up on their other rou-tines. Their top two routines, bars and floor, were still await-ing them. When the pressure was on, the Tigers responded. Weaver tied Sugden's school record with a 9.75 on bars. Sugden mean-while, almost slipped on bars, see GYMNASTS, page 10 "
