CHAMPIONSHIP
APPEARANCES 1982 AIAW CHAMPIONSHIPS Led by unheralded freshman Shari Retton from Fairmont, West Virginia, the 1982 gymnastics team surprised the country by finishing third at the AIAW Championships in Memphis, Tennessee. Coach Linda Burdette’s Mountaineers, at the University’s first-ever national championships, finished behind first-place Florida and runner-up Alabama, and ahead of national powerhouses Georgia, Ohio State, Brigham Young and Washington State, among others. Retton captured First Team All-America honors on vault, uneven parallel bars, floor exercise and the all-around. WVU qualified for the championships by winning the EAIAW Regional at Clarion State. The Mountaineers scored 139.25 points to edge Yale’s 138.35. That title is still WVU’s only regional championship. The 1982 season saw 18 wins against seven losses. The biggest win of the season was a 142.30-142.10 victory against eventual national champion Florida, a meet that WVU won on the last gymnast of the last rotation. The 142.30 points was a school record at the time. Also during the 1982 season, West Virginia beat Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Maryland and Pitt. A side note to the season were Retton’s ties to the athletic world. Her younger sister, Mary Lou, went on to become an Olympic Gold Medalist. Her father, Ronnie, played basketball for the Mountaineers from 1957-59. After winning four letters and graduating, Retton later married Mike Timko, a former Mountaineer quarterback (1985-87). The 1982 season was WVU’s last year in the AIAW after a nine‑year association. The Mountaineers began NCAA competition with the 1983 season. 1995 NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS After years of being on the outside looking in, the 1995 WVU gymnastics team took it to the next level with an at‑large bid to the 1995 NCAA Championships in Athens, Georgia. The senior‑led group found the right mix of talent, desire, experience and coaching and put it all together when it counted - at the NCAA Southeast Regional. In fact, the whole season was something magical. Ten team records were set or tied throughout the course of the year, while five individual marks were reached. The 15‑6 Mountaineers won their fourth straight Atlantic 10 title and Karla Hairston and Kristin Quackenbush were named Atlantic 10 Gymnasts of the Year, while Umme Salim garnered A10 Freshman of the Year honors.
1995 MOUNTAINEERS
Pictured here are the members of WVU’s 1995 NCAA team (left to right): FRONT ROW: Allison Poteet and Lauren Schneider; SECOND ROW: Salim, Angel Ricciulli, Hairston and Manago; THIRD ROW: Kaye, Byrnes and Migli; FOURTH ROW: Kristen Fearney, Quackenbush and Leigh Miller.
Coach Linda Burdette was named the NCAA Southeast Regional Coach of the Year. Freshman Adriana Manago earned NACGC/W scholastic All‑America status, while WVU’s first‑ever trip to the NCAA Championships was highlighted by Quackenbush, the talented sophomore all‑arounder, who earned second‑team All‑America honors on the floor exercise. The most rewarding accomplishment of the 1995 season was that WVU’s three seniors, Liz Byrnes, Jenni Kaye and Shannon Migli, overcame injuries that plagued them their first three years in Morgantown to become major contributors in WVU’s run to the championships. 1999 NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS What appeared initially as a tragedy for the 1999 West Virginia gymnastics team was actually an awakening. The Mountaineers had attained a 17-2 record prior to the East Atlantic Gymnastics League meet and entered the meet as one of only three schools from the EAGL ranked in the top 25. For the first time since the inception of the EAGL in 1996, the Mountaineers failed to win the EAGL crown in 1999. But, despite finishing an uncharacteristic sixth at the EAGL Championships at Maryland, the Mountaineers couldn’t have scripted a more opportune time to amend that setback, regroup and really let their true colors show at the NCAA Regionals held before their home crowd. West Virginia hosted the NCAA Region 6 Championships at the WVU Coliseum, which assembled five of the top-25 teams in the country, including No. 2 Alabama. The Mountaineers showcased their most brilliant talent at this meet and attained a 195.275 team score, placing them second in their region behind Alabama and qualifying them for their second trip to the national championship in five years. Although the Mountaineers placed 12th at the NCAA Championship in Salt Lake City, Utah, coach Linda Burdette had plenty of reasons to be proud of her squad. Five WVU gymnasts earned all-EAGL notice and for the fourth consecutive season, the Mountaineers were undefeated in the Coliseum in regular season competition. One of the most significant of those wins came on Feb. 20, when the Mountaineers defeated Minnesota and North Carolina State, giving Burdette the 400th and 401st victories of her career. She became the fourth coach in school history to reach that milestone. Senior Nikki West punctuated her stellar vaulting career with two more perfect 10.0s in 1999. West scored five 10.0s on vault, tying her with former WVU gymnast Kristin Quakenbush for the most perfect scores in school history.
1999 MOUNTAINEERS
Members of WVU’s 1999 NCAA team (left to right): FIRST ROW: Nikki West and Debora Santiago; SECOND ROW: Jaime Hill and Jessica Rohm; THIRD ROW: Christen Simpson, Kristen Macrie and Kelly Foley; FOURTH ROW: Shirley Lee and Danielle Lilly; FIFTH ROW: Allison Pratus, Rebecca Slobig, Shannon Cox, Allison Gaidish and Jessica Nonnemacher.
