Home sweet Brougham. Following a stretch of four consecutive away meets, the No. 3-ranked Seattle Pacific University gymnastics team returns home to Brougham Pavilion for its final two regular season meets. The Falcons (3-12) will face Alaska Anchorage (7-7) in a pair of duals Thursday (Mar. 21) and Saturday (Mar. 23), each beginning at 7:30 p.m. The next scheduled competition for SPU is the USA Gymnastics Collegiate Championships, April 11-13 in Springfield, Mass.

A senior moment. It will be a busy weekend in the pavilion. Sandwiched in between the meets is the Level 8-10 State Championships, and following Saturday's competition the Falcons will honor their three graduating seniors. For Missy McLaughlin (Sr., Federal Way, Wa./Decatur), it's an opportunity to share the spotlight in a season which has rendered her to the sidelines. McLaughlin was an All-America on vault as a junior but has missed all but one meet with injuries. Courtney Stump (Sr., Poulsbo, Wa./Charles Wright) has been a fixture in the floor exercise lineup throughout her career and on vault and beam this season. The list of accomplishments for Alison Siegel-McAfee (Sr., Oakland, Ca./Redwood Christian) could take awhile. She rates among the program's all-time greats, holding school records for vault, balance beam and all-around, plus she's a four-time All-America.

Last chance. This week's meets represent the final opportunities to improve team and individual rankings going into the postseason selections. Seattle Pacific is assured of making the USAG national championships for the 20th year in a row but holds only a slim advantage over UC Davis for the No. 3 seed. More tenuous is the standing of several individuals with regard to at-large berths for the NCAA West Regional. Siegel-McAfee is in the running for all-around, beam and vault and while Corrie McDaniel (Fr., Lawrence, Ks./Lawrence) is in contention on floor. The field of competitors will be determined Mar. 25 and the regional meet is Apr. 6 in Corvallis.

Staying strong. Throughout the past month on the road, the Falcons have continued to post high scores. In fact, they have scored over 191 points in each of the last seven meets, including the No. 2 all-time score. Last week SPU came to the end of the road at Oregon State, scoring 192.000. The bar total of 48.200 matched the highest of the season. Fifth-ranked Michigan won the four-way meet with a 196.700, followed by OSU (196.675) and Michigan State (195.050).

Falcons' Ahr ready. Blockbuster seasons by Siegel-McAfee and McDaniel may have overshadowed the emergence of Annastasia Ahr (So., San Antonio, Tx./Blessed Hope Academy) as one of the Falcons' big guns. All along, Coach Laurel Tindall has said she may have three All-America-caliber all-arounders, and Ahr is making those words ring true. She's coming off a career-high total of 38.500 at Corvallis and now ranks 11th nationally. That included a season-high 9.550 on vault, a career-best 9.550 on bars and a 9.775 on floor. Her work on floor (season average of 9.702) and beam (9.445) have proven particularly valuable. Ahr missed the first half of her freshman season due to a back injury before finishing as with the squad's No. 2 average on beam.

Hits and misses. Seattle Pacific shone brightest on bars and floor last week. McDaniel posted the team's highest score of the meet with a 9.825 on the latter. The Falcons' five counting scores were all 9.675 or higher. SPU has seen tremendous improvement on bars during the course of the year. After scoring in the low 47's initially, it now consistently scores high 47's and low 48 range. Without stellar sophomore Jennifer Christman (So., Fairfield, Ca./Benicia), SPU took its lumps on vault, dipping to 47.125, the lowest since late January. Christman, who had averaged better than 9.600 over the last four meets, was nursing a sore back. McDaniel set a new high on vault with a 9.525. Christman did swing bars, finishing with a 9.675­second only to Siegel-McAfee's 9.700.

National standings. Going into the final week of regular season competition, the Falcons are ranked No. 3 nationally on bars (47.975), beam (47.890), floor (48.715) and total (191.925). They are No. 5 on vault (47.635). Siegel-McAfee is No. 2 on vault, No. 3 in all-around, No. 5 on floor and No. 6 on beam. McDaniel is No. 3 on floor and No. 8 in all-around. Kristen Strid (Jr., Kingsburg, Ca./Kingsburg) is No. 8 on beam and Christman is No. 9 on vault.

Gym shorts. Siegel-McAfee placed eighth in all-around last week with a 38.800. Michigan's Elise Ray won with a 39.650, including a 9.950 on bars...Strid, incidentally, has a streak of 10 consecutive meets without a fall on beam...Rachael Anderson (Jr., Yakima, Wa./West Valley) also had a strong competition, sticking her third consecutive beam routine for a score of 9.475, and hitting a clean floor routine for her second-highest score of the season (9.700)...Stump has scored above a 9.500 on floor in each of the last eight meets. Her season high is a 9.750, scored at UC Davis...McDaniel's 9.925 score on floor is the second-highest in the nation this season...The team's two highest scores this season have come on the road. The last time that ocurred was 1997, when SPU claimed its third and most recent national championship.

Series & Opponent notes. Alaska Anchorage has won five straight decisions coming into this week but the Seawolves have yet to defeat Seattle Pacific in 28 previous meetings. This week's meets fill the void in the schedule created by the dissolution of the Western Independents Championships. Next year, SPU and UAA are expected to join the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, which includes UC Davis, San Jose State, Air Force and Sacramento State.

Tickets, please. General admission tickets for all SPU home gymnastics meets are priced $5 with students, youth and senior citizens $3 with proper identification. Teams or groups can qualify for discount rates by call (206) 281-2085 in advance.

SPU Coaches. Coach Laurel Tindall is a veteran of the sport and is synonymous with the university. Originally, she competed for the Falcons, then replaced her mentor, George Lewis, immediately following graduation. Subsequently, she has served in her position for 26 years. Under her guidance, SPU has won three national championships and, individually, her gymnasts have taken 15 titles. Three times Tindall has been honored as national coach of the year. Kathy Siwek returns for her second season as an assistant coach. Siwek was a two-time All-America and a member of the 1997 national championship team.