Central Michigan gymnast Sara Burtinsky qualified for national championships after a fourth-place finish at the Central Regional Championships on Friday.
Burtinsky, who also placed first in the individual bars event with a score of 9.9, is making her first trip to the nationals. She is the 2004 Mid-American Conference uneven bars, balance beam and all-around champion.
The NCAA Championships are April 15-17 at the Pauley Pavilion on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles, Calif.
MAC Baseball players of the week announced
The league office announced Monday the East and West Division awards for Player and Pitcher of the Week.
Marshall's Corie O'Bryan was named East Division Player of the Week after hitting .769 in three games last week. In the first game against Miami, he went 2-for-4 with three runs batted in and a three-run homer. He also went 5-for-5 in the second game against Miami, driving in seven runs and scoring twice.
Miami's Geoff Orr also received the award for the first time in his career, after helping the RedHawks to a pair of wins against Marshall and a win against Xavier. Orr went 5-for-9 with six RBIs in two games against the Thundering Herd. He had an .833 slugging percentage and a .533 on-base percentage.
Pat Watt from Akron was awarded the East Division Pitcher of the Week after picking up his first win of the season against Buffalo. He pitched a complete game, giving up one unearned run on five hits, and struck out a career-high 10 batters during the game.
In the West Division, Adam Rosales of Western Michigan picked up the Player of the Week award. He went 9-for-13 in the Bronco's three-game series sweep against Toledo and batted .692. He had three home runs, one triple and six RBIs, scoring nine times throughout the weekend.
After recording a pair of conference relief wins during the weekend, Ball State's Jeff Michael won the West Division Pitcher of the Week honors. He posted a 1.42 earned run average in 6 1/3 innings of work. Michael limited opposing teams to two hits, one run and a .105 batting average, while striking out four batters.
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Julie Goldberg
