Talladega College is continuing its magical first season of women’s gymnastics with an invitation to a national tournament.

Six Talladega gymnasts qualified to compete in the USA Gymnastics Women’s Collegiate National Championships starting today in West Chester, Pennsylvania. The historically Black college, competing in NCAA Division II, sent five freshmen and one graduate student.

Making the trip and aiming to shake things up are Alexa Chuy, Kyrstin Johnson, Landyn Williams, Kiora Peart-Williams, Jamilia Duffus and Alondra Maldonado. The last of the six is an Iowa State transfer who qualified for the nationals in two events.

Maldonado will compete in the floor exercise and the balance beam. The Tornado star qualified for the balance beam with a score of 9.78. Maldonado also scored a 9.76 on the floor exercise to get into the national field.

Williams, a Buford, Georgia, native, will represent Talladega College on the vault. She has a nationally qualifying score of 9.61.

Johnson and Chuy will compete in the all-around at the nationals. Chuy had a season-best score of 38.65 at the Nashville Collegiate Invitational this season. Talladega also got a national-qualifying tally of 37.87 from Johnson.

The Tornadoes have high hopes for Peart-Williams at West Chester, too. She qualified on the uneven bars where she had a career-high score of 9.8 this season.

Duffus of Talladega hopes to medal and win at the national meet. Duffus, a native of Kingston, Jamaica, qualified on the uneven bars. Her most recent score in that event was a 9.58.

Talladega College gymnasts watch teammates compete in an intrasquad meet. (contributed)

The six schools that qualified for the team championship are: Air Force Academy, Brown University, Cornell, Texas Women’s University, West Chester State and Lindenwood University.

The Talladega athletes enter the tournament with some strong wins this inaugural season. The Tornadoes beat Alaska-Anchorage, Centenary College, Winona State and Greenville University. The Talladega women defeated Centenary twice.

The competition starts this afternoon with the finals slated for Sunday, April 14. Fans should check the West Chester University’s Athletics webpage for live streaming and scoring updates.

A version of this story originally appeared in The Daily Home.