ITHACA, N.Y. -- Twelve Cornell gymnasts will begin their quests for individual crowns today when the Big Red opens competition at the 2012 USA Gymnastics Women's Collegiate National Championships at Bridgeport University. The gymnasts will compete during both sessions of the national semifinals, with the top 10 in each event qualifying for Saturday's individual finals.

The USA Gymnastics Collegiate Championships is for Division I, II and III schools with less than seven-and-a-half full scholarships. Competition begins Thursday at 1 p.m. with two sessions of team semifinals and the all-around finals, which will be located at Harvey Hubbell Gymnasium. Saturday will be the individual event finals at 1 p.m.

While the Big Red failed to qualify as a team for the first time since 2000, nearly a full team of gymnasts earned individual invitations and will have an opportunity to compete for individual USAG national event titles. The 12 gymnasts will compete in a total of 18 events.

McKenna Archer leads the way with invitations to compete in three events (vault, bars and beam), while Samantha Vander Putten (vault, floor), Tiffany Chen (vault, floor), Elise Kerner (vault, bars) and Alexis Schupp (bars, beam) all qualified to compete in two events. In addition, Ashley Maher, Melanie Standridge, Nicolette Shofner and Melanie Jorgensen will compete on bars, Maia Vernacchia will accept a spot to compete in beam and Mackenzie Sato will do her floor routine.

The Big Red have had great success at the USAG nationals over the last decade, including winning the meet in 2009 and finishing second the year before. It has four top three team finishes in the last six years. Cornell has had four USAG national champions in the last four years, and both Jorgensen (bars) and Standridge (beam) are looking to repeat their crowns from 2011. Over the last eight years, Cornell has averaged seven USAG All-America awards a season, including taking home five awards in 2011.