Florida 198.000

Alabama 197.900

LSU 197.700

Georgia 197.625

Kayla Williams – Y 1/1 – stuck cold. Way to start the run Bama! 9.975

Kim Jacob – Y 1/1 – major leg separation during flight – almost a perfect stick though on landing. 9.800

Lauren Beers – Y 1/1 – almost a perfect stick – left foot just slides a bit.  9.875.

Kaitlyn Clark – Y 1/1 – small hop back – big in the air -9.875

Diandra Milliner – Y 1.5 – super stick of this difficult vault – 9.925

Marissa Gutierrez – Y 1/1 – big in the air – one step back on the landing.  Happy gal! 9.900!

LSU finishes with a 49.375 on beam and a 197.700 team score.

Florida wins it with a dynamic floor run – 49.625 – no score below a 9.900.  198.00 even.

Georgia finishes in 4th with a 197.625 – excellent bars to close out but they had problems on the vault after starting out red hot on the balance beam.

Ashley Priess – great routine from the senior – opening double tuck, 1.5 through to a front layout and a beautiful double pike – exquisite toe point and extension on the leaps and jumps. 9.900

Lora Frost – opens with the double layout – solid – punch front layout to 1/1 – closes with a double tuck – great finish for the sophomore walk-on – Bama fans on their feet right across from her. Way to fight Bama! 9.875

Lauren Beers – opens with a double layout – closes with a beautiful double tuck – major air time. 9.900

Sarah DeMeo – super performance but just stepped on the line at the end with her 2.5 twist, so that will be an automatic deduction of .1  and they usually take off for execution as well. 9.75

Kim Jacob – opens with a pike full in – pops back the double pike landing on her second pass but stays well in bounds – finishes strong with a 1.5 through to a 1/1 for a 9.925.

Diandra Milliner – super double front Arabian to open – stands up the front-front to 1/1 without moving on the landing – closes with a double pike – huge in the air.  9.950

LSU – 49.175 on bars

Diandra Milliner – balance check on her front aerial and hop back on the double twist dismount. 9.800

Kaitlyn Clark – excellent routine from the sophomore – one step forward on the 1.5 twisting dismount. 9.850

Kayla Williams – beautiful routine – sticks the dismount of the 1.5 as well – that was earned in the extended warm-ups! 9.925

Sarah DeMeo - solid routine – one step back on the double pike dismount. Small shoulder shift on the front aerial.  9.825 – too low

Kim Jacob – solid routine from the junior – sticks the 1.5 twisting dismount as well. 9.925

Ashley Priess – has to lift her leg a bit  to control landing of the straddle jump out of the switch split leap combination – rest of routine was solid, including the switch split leap to gainer full twist. 9.875

LSU – 10.00 for Courville! 49.525  – 99.150

Florida – 49.500 on bars – 9.95 for Sloan!  98.875

UGA – 9.90 on floor for Persinger and Jay!  98.850

LSU – 49.625

Georgia – 49.500

Alabama – 49.400

Florida – 49.375

Change in the line-up by the coaches – Clark will start for the Tide.  Jacob is inserted for Sledge.

Kaitlyn Clark - leg split on her shaposh – hop back on the double layout dismount. Missed handstand as well. 9.825

Becca Alexin - strong routine from the senior – a little leg split on the shaposh – nice handstands – sticks the full turn to double tuck flyaway dismount sequence. 9.875

Lauren Beers – shaposh to pak salto – nice handstands – one step forward on the double front Arabian landing (dismount). 9.825

Kim Jacob – toe on toe off to Ray release – missed last handstand – sticks the double layout. 9.875

Sarah DeMeo – beautiful routine. 9.900

Ashley Priess – great routine as well. 9.925

LSU is doing terrific on floor – only one 9.85, rest are 9.90 or higher. 9.925 from Courville and a 9.95 from Hall.   49.625 for the team!

Florida scored a 49.375 on the vault – hops cost them but solid efforts from Sloan and Hunter.

Georgia also scored high on the balance beam – 49.500!

Alabama is wearing the crimson red shiny leo with the huge A on the left side, crimson netting on the arms, lots of silver sequins winking throughout.

LSU is in black with a gold fleur de lis (sideways print stretching up the bodice) with silver sequins spreading out and continuing on the backside.

Florida is wearing marine blue with a sweetheart bodice cut, sheer white contrasting on the upper bodice and sleeves, orange sequin stripes on the front and continuing onto the upper back.

Georgia is in poppy red with a contrasting net black fabric on the top bodice and arms.

It’s hard to believe that the 2013 post-season is already here – the past three months of competition have flown by and we are seeing the top four teams in the SEC – Florida, Alabama, Georgia and LSU – prepare to compete head to head in the second session of the newly revised SEC, now with 8 teams competing after Missouri joined the league this year.

For Alabama to bring home their 8th SEC championship they will have to overcome some adversity right out of the chute – as senior All American Ashley Sledge is unable to go tonight on her three events due to a strained back she suffered yesterday during vault warm-ups.  Sledge is the key lead-off on uneven bars for the Tide, their first event tonight, and she will have to be replaced by either freshman Carley Sims or junior Kim Jacob and senior Becca Alexin will move into the lead-off spot.  So  how Alabama responds right out of the gate will tell us where their mindset is here tonight – are they resolved to overcome this adversity by rallying as a team and stepping up? They can still post solid scores on this event but must be focused and determined to hit those handstands and release moves and stick those landings to garner the highest scores possible.

Alabama moves to the balance beam in rotation two and will need to return to their “Bama Bubble” like they did last year at NCAAs – the Tide has veteran competitors on this event and it’s time to deliver the complete routines they are capable of.  This means a strong lead-off by Milliner like she delivered against Arkansas when Gutierrez went down on floor. This means two solid performances from sophomores Clark and Williams before handing the baton to the dynamic trio – DeMeo, Jacob and Priess to bring it home.

Alabama rotates to floor next and will replace Sledge with Lora Frost, who has a dynamic double layout to open.  Senior Ashley Priess will lead off and then Beers, DeMeo, Jacob and Milliner will need to nail their opening and closing tumbling passes with dynamic dance in between to garner the highest scores possible.

The final event is one of Alabama’s best this year – vault – where we need to see super amplitude like we’re used to and stuck landings.  This would be a great time to see that 10 score for Kayla Williams, Lauren Beers and Diandra Milliner, who have come so close this year.

While Florida may be the prohibitive favorite, you can never count out talented teams like Georgia, LSU and Alabama – hopefully we will see all four teams compete their best here tonight in preparation for the NCAA regionals in two weeks, where each will need to be one of two top scoring teams at their respective competition sites, in order to advance to the NCAA National Championships in Los Angeles in mid-April.

All the best to Ashley Sledge for a speedy recovery in time for the Tuscaloosa Regional on April 6th. And Roll Tide – best of luck to the GymTide here tonight. Let’s compete like the champions you are!

Alabama is warming up on vault and getting really nice push off the table in their early timers.

Gutierrez is slated to vault in the sixth position – Milliner will be in 5th -

Carley Sims looking good with her timers – very nice amplitude on her Y 1/1 and good tight twisting in the air – Jacob still having trouble keeping her legs together during entry even though she sticks that run.

Guti’s first Y 1/1 run – a little crooked in the air with soft knees but first one is done. Second one is better but problems controlling the landing.

Really nice Y 1/1 runs by Williams and Beers.  Clark and Priess also doing timers – nice Y 1/1 just then from Clark.

Priess looks good too but pikes hers down a bit. Milliner comes right behind her and gets super amplitude on her Y 1.5 and sticks the landing.

Teams ready to retreat to the lockers to dress for the competition.