Michigan State gymnastics advances to NCAA Tournament Regional Final

The magical season for the Michigan State gymnastics team just keeps on rolling. The Spartans have already won the Big Ten regular season and tournament championships, and now the MSU has inched one step closer to a national title.

The 12-seed Spartans had a bye in the NCAA Tournament and got to skip ahead to the second round. Their second-round meet took place on Friday afternoon in Gainesville, Fla., against 5-seed Utah, Maryland, and Towson. The top two teams from this meet would advance to the regional finals, and the Spartans did just enough to advance.

Michigan State held a slim lead after two rotations, but Utah is a top-five team in the country in both beam and floor which just so happened to be their final two events. So it was going to be a battle for MSU to remain in first place, which unfortunately they were unable to do.

However, now that they're in the NCAA tournament that doesn't matter. All that matters is finishing top two and advancing to the next round and that's exactly what they did.

The Spartans now march on to the regional final where they will compete for a chance to make the NCAA semifinals. Michigan State will face off against five-seed Utah again as well as the top two finishers from the other regional semifinal taking place Friday night. Those four teams are 4-seed Florida, 13-seed Missouri, Georgia, and Iowa State.

Last season, MSU made it to the regional final as well but unfortunately finished in third place and missed out on making the NCAA Tournament semifinals. The Spartans will look to get over the hump this season and make it to the final weekend of the women's gymnastics season.

The regional final meet will take place in Gainesville again on Sunday.