Gymnastics NCAA Regionals | No Fling, but high hopes for Rosen

For the second year in a row, Penn gymnast Marissa Rosen will miss out on Spring Fling. Believe it or not, she has somewhere better to be.

Tomorrow, Rosen will represent the Quakers at the NCAA Northeast Regionals at Penn State. Her qualifying score of 38.8, averaged from her six best scores this season, was good enough to make her the No. 1 seeded all-arounder from a team that did not qualify.

"[Regionals] is definitely something I've thought about since the day I came to Penn," Rosen said. "I'm very excited because I'm a lot less nervous and more prepared this year."

In the 2007 Northeast Regionals, then-freshman Rosen was the top-ranked all-arounder as well. She finished tenth with a score of 38.525.

Rosen has already made a name for herself in two seasons of Penn gymnastics. This year, she was the leading scorer for the Quakers in all four events. Her second-place finish in the all around at Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships, with a score of 39.125, was 0.1 points behind the school record.

"Marissa had a great meet in January against Rutgers and from there on, she's just been on a roll," coach John Ceralde said.

Rosen's ultimate goal is to qualify for NCAA Championships held in Athens, Ga.

"It's going to be difficult but I definitely have a chance," she said. "I really just wanna do what I've done all year long."

In order to qualify for nationals, Rosen needs to finish in the top two in the all around, or first in an individual event, among the women whose team didn't qualify.

Alina Liao of Yale appears to be Rosen's toughest competitor. She has beaten Rosen in the all around twice this season, at the Yale-Penn dual meet and at the Ivy Classic. But Rosen has the better numbers overall. Liao's regional qualifying score is 0.55 points behind Rosen's, and her career high in the all around is 0.45 points behind Rosen's career high.

Among the other all-arounders, Pittsburgh freshman Shannon Vafiadou has averaged 38.168 points while Rutgers' Laura Sevarino averaged 37.559 points before missing her final four meets with an injury.

Quakers freshman Jordan Brewer was selected as an alternate for the all around, meaning that she will compete only if another all-arounder gets injured.

But Rosen will have a new fan base in the form of the No. 1 Georgia, with whom she will be paired during competition. The pressure of competing alongside a top-ranked school motivates Rosen.

"The girls are very supportive," she said of her experience with the Florida last year. "They kind of adopt you into their team for a day because they know that you're the only one from your team."

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