Fresh off their Mid-American Conference Championship performances on Saturday, Northern Illinois University gymnasts Alyssa Al-Ashari and Kiera O’Shea have qualified for the NCAA Regionals and will compete in the Fayetteville, Ark. Regional on April 4, 2024 as the NCAA announced the 2023 Gymnastics Selections on Monday.
“I am incredibly proud of both Alyssa and Kiera,” head coach Sam Morreale said. “A post season regional bid is the culmination of their entire year of work, and a testament to their ability. They are both currently at the top of their game coming off conference championship wins this past weekend so their goal is to go to regionals and do our best to qualify through to Nationals. They both have the ability to do really well and we are super excited for them.”
Al-Ashari, who shared the MAC title on balance beam, qualified for the Regional on uneven parallel bars for the second consecutive year, while MAC vault champion O’Shea qualified on that event. Regional qualification is based on each individual’s National Qualifying Score.
Al-Ashari, a senior from Lansing, Mich. earned an NQS of 9.885 on bars this season to earn a spot in the regional. On Saturday, Al-Ashari won beam at the Mid-American Conference Championships. The senior scored 9.925 on bars twice this season to tie her career high. A year ago, she competed in the NCAA Denver
Regional on both bars and beam and placed in the top three in the regional on beam.
O’Shea, a sophomore from Norridge, Ill. will make her NCAA Regional debut in 2024. O’Shea posted an NQS of 9.885 on vault and scored a career high of 9.925 at Saturday’s MAC Championships to claim first place. The score of 9.925 tied for the highest vault score in NIU history. O’Shea scored a 9.900 on vault at NC State’s quad-meet on Saturday, March 2 and won the meet which featured two top 25 teams.
NIU has had at least one individual qualify for regionals in each of the last 10 years the championships have been held (no NCAA Regionals in 2020 due to COVID-19), dating back to 2014. Including 2024 first time qualifier O’Shea, 18 different Huskies have qualified for the NCAA Regionals 28 times since Morreale took over the NIU program as head coach in 2012.
Al-Ashari and O’Shea, who will rotate with Arkansas and compete in the first session of the day, will now prepare for the NCAA Regionals which start in just nine days on the campus of Arkansas.