Jan. 5, 2009

The Arizona gymnastics squad started the season on a bit of a bright note, when the team earned the No. 18 ranking in a national preseason poll.

“It’s nice and it shows people’s respect for our program,” head coach Bill Ryden said. “All we can do is try and live up to that ranking and exceed it.”

Arizona was one of five Pac-10 schools to show up in the rankings. UCLA led the way at No. 4, followed by No. 5 Standford, No. 9 Oregon State, No. 18 Arizona and No. 24 Arizona State.

The Wildcats enter the season looking to extend their postseason streak to 23 consecutive years and have a solid core of athletes returning.

Arizona has four talented seniors, two juniors, two sophomore and six freshman to help the team get to the postseason and the preseason rank is just a nice nod to the programs success in the past.

“The girls really don’t look at the rankings,” Ryden said. “It’s more for the coaches and the media. Until we get about a month into the season, we wont really know how accurate (the rankings) are.”

The gymnastics team opens the 2009 season on the road where it faces Minnesota on Saturday, January 10^th at 6:00 p.m.