Brittany Dutton Heads to NCAA Regional Gymnastics Championships
4/1/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Gymnastics
April 1, 2011
Air Force senior Brittany Dutton will travel to Denver, Colo., for the 2011 NCAA Women's Gymnastics Regional Championship on Saturday, April 2. Dutton, who will compete in the all-around, will be making her third appearance at the regional championships. Action is slated to begin at 6 p.m., at Magness Arena on the campus of the University of Denver.
Meet Notes 12: at NCAA Regional Championships 
HOW IT WORKS
Six teams, five all-around competitors who aren't on a regional qualifying team and one specialist per event, who is not on a qualifying team or selected as an all-around competitor, will compete at each of the six regional competitions - Denver, Tuscaloosa, Corvallis, Ann Arbor, Norman and Athens. The top teams, all-around competitors and event specialists from each region will advance to the NCAA Championships in Cleveland, Ohio, on April 14-16.
LET'S MEET THE COMPETITION
Six full squads will compete at the Denver Regional, highlighted by top-ranked Florida, No. 12 Arkansas, No. 13 Boise State, No. 19 Denver, No. 20 Arizona and BYU. Individual athletes, including all-around competitors, event specialists and alternates are from Air Force, Utah State, Wisconsin-La Crosse and Wisconsin-Stout.
MOVING AROUND THE GYM
Brittany Dutton will participate with Boise State during meet and open the meet on a bye. In the second rotation, Dutton and the Broncos will compete on the floor exercise, before moving on to the vault, bye, uneven bars and balance beam. It is the same rotation that Dutton followed last weekend, en route to her first conference title on the balance beam.
ALL ABOUT DUTTON
Brittany Dutton, the senior captain of a team that features the most freshmen in all of Division I gymnasts, competed in every meet of 2011, including eight competitions in the all-around. She set career-best marks on the uneven bars (9.825), floor exercise (9.825) and all-around (38.625) during the year to lead the Falcons in all three. She was named the MPSF Gymnast of the Week on Jan. 25, following her performance against Seattle Pacific in which she won titles on the bars and all-around, as well as earning a runner-up finish on the vault. Dutton claimed seven first-place finishes over the season and four all-conference honors, including the all-around (38.130), vault (9.665), uneven bars (9.695) and floor exercise (9.725). Dutton shared the MPSF balance beam title with classmate Lisa Wong behind a career-best score of 9.775, while placing second on both the floor exercise and all-around.
DON'T FORGET...
Linnaea Hance and Samantha Jones were selected as alternates to the NCAA Regional Championships. Hance will serve the alternate for the all-around, while Jones was chosen as the alternate on the vault.
FALCONS SWEEP MPSF AWARDS
Air Force swept the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation end-of-season awards, as Brittany Dutton was named the Gymnast of the Year, Doug Day was named the Head Coach of the Year and Kyle Georges was named the Assistant Coach of the Year.
HISTORY 101
Brittany Dutton is the second Air Force gymnast to earn the conference's top honor, joining Abbey Rogers who claimed the award in 2008 and 2009. Doug Day earned the Head Coach of the Year award for the second straight year, while Kyle Georges became the second coach to earn the top assistant coaching award from the MPSF.
ALL-CONFERENCE ACCOLADES
Five Falcons earned all-conference honors, based on their regional qualifying scores. Brittany Dutton paced Air Force with four selections (vault, uneven bars, floor exercise, all-around), while Linnaea Hance added two (balance beam, all-around). Lisa Wong (balance beam), Jessica Hanner (balance beam) and Samantha Jones (vault) each claimed one honor.
FALCONS SHARE MPSF BEAM TITLE
Brittany Dutton and Lisa Wong scored career-best scores of 9.775 to share the balance beam title at the MPSF Championships on March 19. The pair's finish on the beam marked the third straight season that a member of the Air Force squad has accounted for a conference title.
A BALANCING ACT
Air Force claimed five places on the awards podium of the balance beam, highlighted by the 9.775 event title from Lisa Wong and Brittany Dutton. Jen Larsen, Linnaea Hance and Jessica Hanner tied for sixth with matching marks of 9.675.
CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP RECAP
UC Davis claimed the MPSF team title with a combined score of 192.975, while Air Force finished second with a score of 192.225. That score is the Falcons' second-highest score of the season. Seattle Pacific scored a 191.250 to take third, while Alaska-Anchorage rounded out the field with a fourth-place score of 190.475.
WHAT'S AHEAD FOR THE FALCONS
The Falcons return to the Academy next weekend to host the 2011 USA Gymnastics Collegiate National Championships. The three-day meet begins on Friday, April 8, with two preliminary sessions. The top teams from each session will advance to the team finals on Saturday, April 9, while the top gymnasts from the first day of competition will compete in the event finals on Sunday, April 10.
Players Mentioned
