Six members of the Lindenwood women's gymnastics team have qualified to compete at the USAG Nationals in the program's inaugural season. The national event begins tomorrow at 2 p.m. in Shreveport, La.

Emily Turik, Courtney Heise, Trystien Charles, Valeri Ingui, Alicia Floyd, and Rachel Zabawa have earned spots to compete as individuals at the event. Turik and Heise captured two of the eight all-around spots, Charles earned an individual spot on the bars, Ingui earned two spots on both the beam and floor, Floyd earned a spot to compete on the beam and Zabawa will be competing in the vault, beam, and floor exercise.

Turik and Heise both recorded season-highs at the Midwest Independent Conference Championships this past weekend. Turik's all-around score of 38.725 topped her previous best by .150 of a point. Heise topped her previous best of a 38.650 with a 38.950 at the Championships.

At conference, Charles stepped in and broke the school record, along with Turik, on the bars with a 9.825. That was her career-high by almost two-tenths of a point.

This season, Ingui has recorded five scores over 9.700 on the beam including a career-high against Texas Woman's with a 9.775. She has hit the 9.700 mark four times on the floor, earning a career-high 9.775 against Bowling Green State at home.
 
Initially an alternate on the beam, Floyd found out a week prior to leaving for Louisiana that she would be competing in the event. Floyd has recorded a career-high 9.700 on the event at the competition against Arkansas, Missouri and Centenary. She has five scores this season of 9.500 or higher on the beam.

Zabawa, earning a spot in all three of her events, has recorded six vault, three beam, and eight floor scores over a 9.700 this season. She holds the school record on the vault with a 9.800 and the beam with a 9.850.

Air Force, Bridgeport, Brown, Centenary, Cornell, Seattle Pacific, Texas Woman's and U-Penn are the eight teams that earned a spot at Nationals. Lindenwood finished eighth in the USAG rankings, but had to relinquish its spot for host school Centenary who finished 11^th in the rankings.