The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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NOVEMBER 2014 ■ 115 the Year. She made 45 podium appearances, nearly doubling Ouellette's total, and her 25 first-place finishes were eight more than the rest of the team combined. Among those triumphs included the vault and floor exercise at the EAGL Championships. Watkins was named first-team All-EAGL in every event plus the all-around competi- tion, and was a four-time EAGL Gymnast of the Week honoree. Stevenson and Watkins have set ambi- tious goals for her in 2015, including earn- ing All-America honors in the all-around at the NCAA Championships, but Stevenson is confident that Watkins has it in her to ac- complish them. "I think she has got super potential," Ste- venson said. "She is talented. She has a beau- tiful look to her. She does all the skills that all of the top kids in the country do. It's just about having to be perfect on the right day. "That day she will have to be perfect is NCAA Regionals day, which is April 4. If you are not perfect on that day you don't get to move on. Last year, she had one wobble on the beam that kept her from going." Watkins headlines NCSU's core of upper- classmen, which also includes senior Lane Jarred and junior Michaela Woodford. Jarred was third on the Pack with 12 podium ap- pearances in 2014, and she was a first-team all-conference selection on the floor, where she won the title at the conference meet, and second-team honoree in the balance beam. She was once named the EAGL Specialist of the Week. Woodford was the EAGL Rookie of the Year over Watkins in 2013 when she was also second-team all-league in the balance beam and all-around. However, an injury limited Woodford to just seven meets last year, six of them exclusively on the uneven bars. She did finish fourth in the all-around in the final regular-season meet of the season against eventual EAGL champ New Hampshire. "Those three upperclassmen, we are count- ing on them to be good on all four events," Stevenson noted. Junior Aubrey Hine and sophomores Courtney Bisbe and Courtney Leighton are strong candidates to get routines in a couple or more events, according to Stevenson. He is also high on the potential of a pair of fresh- men joining the team in Chelsea Knight and Allie Wismer. "They are both all-arounders," Stevenson said. "We are pretty excited to have them both in the lineup. "They do have some pretty good experi- ence. We just have to see how they do in front of 3,000 to 10,000 people." ■ ■ By The Numbers 12 Consecutive years in which NC State has been selected to a postseason NCAA Regionals as a team. 6 Conference titles won in NCSU gymnastics history, five of them in the East Atlantic Gymnastics League and one in the ACC (1984). The ACC no longer fields a competitive gymnastics conference. 4 Top-20 all-time all-around scores in school history already posted by junior Brittni Watkins. Noting The Pack • NC State had seven gymnasts that were named to the East Atlantic Gymnastics League All-Aca- demic Team last year: Hannah Fallanca, Heidi Ffield, Kristen Harabedian, Ellen Marion, Megan Kurd- elmeier, senior Lane Jarred and junior Courtney Turner. Fallanca, Ffield, Harabedian and Marion were seniors on last season's squad, while Kurdelmeier was a junior last year that did not return to the team this season. • Head coach Mark Stevenson announced in Oc - tober that veteran assistant coach Colleen Johnson had been promoted to associate head coach. John- son previously served as an assistant at NCSU from 2000-04 before spending six seasons as an assistant at Arizona. She returned to NC State in 2011. She has been recognized three times as the Southeast Region Assistant Coach of the Year. "It's really an honor to have been promoted," Johnson said. "It's exciting for me to be a part of this athletic department at NC State and everything that we have going on here. It truly is a special place. Mark gave me my first coaching opportunity back in 1999 and I was elated when he gave me this op - portunity to become associate head coach." Three Gymnasts To Watch Junior Brittni Watkins Watkins excelled as a sophomore and will be seeking to become a prominent performer on the national stage in 2015. She has set goals with head coach Mark Stevenson that include winning the East Atlantic Gymnastics League conference title, becoming a regular season All-American and advancing to the NCAA Championships in the all-around where she aims to score All-America honors. Watkins is the reigning EAGL Gymnast of the Year and notched 25 first-place finishes in 2014, nearly two-thirds of the team's overall individual triumphs. Senior Lane Jarred Jarred was one of NC State's top performers in the balance beam last season, when she claimed second-team all-conference honors. She won the event at two separate meets during the season. However, in the postseason Jarred left her mark on the floor exercise, winning the EAGL title with a 9.900 score that tied Watkins for the team's best in the event all season. She was a first-team all-league selection on the floor. This year, Jarred will be counted upon to take a more all-around load for the Wolfpack. Junior Michaela Woodford In 2013, Woodford flashed her potential during her freshman season when she was named the EAGL Rookie of the Year. She was second-team all-conference in both the all-around and balance beam and was a first-team all-tournament selection on the beam. A member of the 2013 EAGL All-Academic Team, Woodford is hoping for a return to the form she had before injuries. She hurt her shoulder as a freshman, forcing her out of the all-around at the confer - ence championship and NCAA Regionals. An injury last year limited her to seven competitions, six of them exclusively on the uneven parallel bars. Newcomer To Watch Chelsea Knight The native of Waldorf, Md., trained at Unique Gymnastics in high school. In 2013, Knight placed top 10 at the Level 10 JO Nationals in the all-around competition. She also scored victories in the balance beam at the Circle of Stars meet and the uneven bars at the Mary - land Classic. She won both the vault and bars at the March Madness Invitational. Knight also is a two-time winner of the Level 10 Maryland State Championship in the vault, capturing the titles in 2012 and 2014. Last year, senior Lane Jarred was third on the team with 12 podium appearances and won the EAGL title in the floor exercise. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE MEDIA RELATIONS