INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA selections were announced Monday for the 2024 National Collegiate Women’s Gymnastics Championships regionals, and No. 32 BYU will compete in the Arkansas Regional hosted by Arkansas at Bud Walton Arena.

The Arkansas Regional will host nine teams for the NCAA competition and run from Wednesday, April 3-Saturday, Apr. 6. The Cougars will compete in their first meet on Wednesday when they take on Boise State for a 2023 regional rematch. The teams will fight for the chance to advance and compete against No. 2 LSU, No. 15 Minnesota and Oregon State on Thursday, Apr. 4.

The other four schools competing in Los Angeles will be starting their tournament run on Thursday, April 4. These teams include No. 7 Kentucky, No. 10 Arkansas, Arizona and Nebraska.

Individual all-around competitors competing in the Arkansas Regional are Central Michigan’s Lucianna Alvarado-Reid and GW’s Kendall Whitman. Individual event specialists are BYU’s Sydney Benson (vault), Anyssa Alvarado (bars), Anna Bramblett (bars), Brynlee Andersen (beam) and Elease Rollins (beam); Northern Illinois’ Kiera O’shea (vault) and Alyssa Al-Ashari (bars); Boise State’s Courtney Blackson (vault, floor), Emily Lopez (bars, beam), Adrianna Popp (beam) and Emma Loyim (floor); and GW’s Sarah Zois (vault) and Maya Peters (beam).

The national championships will take place April 18-20 in Fort Worth, Texas, at Dickies Arena. The championship event is hosted by Texas Woman’s University and Knight Eady.

Benson, Julien earn MPSF awards

Junior outside hitter Luke Benson and senior middle blocker Gavin Julien of the No. 7 BYU men’s volleyball team swept this week’s Mountain Pacific Sports Federation weekly honors, with Benson winning Offensive Player of the Week and Julien claiming Defensive Player of the Week.

Benson led the Cougars with 47 kills on a .412 hitting percentage through two five-set victories over No. 8 Pepperdine on the road, averaging 4.70 kills per set. On Friday, Benson led the Cougars with 21 kills in the match on .318 clip, tying his career high in kills. The following day, Benson led all players in kills with 26 to set a new career high. His record-setting performance on Saturday included a .512 hitting percentage and five blocks. Benson has the most kills out of all players on BYU’s 2024 roster, with 225 so far this season.

Julien had a career-high 11 blocks in the second match against No. 8 Pepperdine, including a season-high two solo blocks. Julien, who was named 2023 All-MPSF Honorable Mention, averaged 1.50 blocks per set and finished with 15 total blocks over the Waves. In Friday’s match, he contributed four blocks, including a solo block. After this weekend, Julien is now tied for 11th all-time in BYU men’s volleyball history for career solo blocks, with 22 total.

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