Sixth Place: Penn State Nittany Lions: 193.275

The Lions were delayed flying into Alabama due to some messy weather up north but were happy to finally reach some sunny, much warmer weather. Senior Gemma Cuff uncharacteristically had an off night, falling on uneven bars (9.250) and struggling on balance beam (9.600) but turned in another solid floor exercise performance for a 9.875 (tied for third). Also going all around for Penn State was sophomore, Katie Rowland, who had her best performances on vault (9.775) and floor (9.875). Penn State looked to be in good shape overall and was most impressive on vault (48.575) and floor (49.025) as a team but will need to polish up on their uneven bars and balance beam performances in order to return to nationals and have a chance to vie for the Super Six at Nationals.

Fifth Place: Florida Gators: 194.425

Fans present for the Super Six Challenge were disappointed over the absence of freshman and former USA National Team Member, Erinn Dooley, from the line-up after she suffered a sprain to the right knee during warm-ups on floor exercise Saturday Night. She hopefully will return to the Gator line-up later this season. However, despite being without Dooley or Katie McFarland, the Gators confidently pressed on to a respectable team score of 194.425, finishing second on the balance beam (48.825) by not having to count a fall (Lindsey Miner, 9.275). Florida had three all arounders, including freshman Kara Waterhouse, who scored well on vault (9.700), uneven bars (9.875) and balance beam (9.825) in her debut. Junior Hilary Thompson had a respectable outing as well (38.900 all around) and senior Gabby Fuchs was impressive on floor (9.800) despite having a rough time during warm-ups on her opening pass. The Gators will likely return to Nationals in April but this may be hindered if Dooley is out of the line-up at that time.

Fourth Place: Michigan Wolverines: 194.475

The Wolverines are known for starting off slow and building up their skills throughout the season. Michigan was expected to be hindered during this meet by an intestinal flu bug that hit many of the team members and the head coach earlier in the week. However, by meet time, Michigan had six gymnasts ready to go on all four events and performed adequately if not always sharply. Senior Chrissy Michaud and sophomore Janessa Grieco were once again the stronger performers on vault for the Wolverines (9.800 and 9.775 respectively) and senior Karina Senior was impressive on the balance beam (9.850), tying for first place. Senior Bridget Knaeble was super confident on uneven bars (9.875) and sharp on floor exercise (9.850) and is expected to lead this team to another Big 10 and Regional Title, along with freshman phenom, Elise Ray, who is expected to join the team for their first competition on January 19. Look for an immediate effect of 8 to 9/10ths on total team scoring with Ray's addition (all around participation expected). For example, by our knowledge of Ray's skills and her consistency, if she had performed in this meet, Michigan would have scored the following: Vault: 48.875, Uneven Bars: 49.200, Balance Beam: 49.075, and Floor Exercise: 49.250, for a total score of 195.700. This is taking into account Ray's high skill level on at least 3 of 4 events and the reasonable estimation of nerves with a "one" vault rule (her weakest event, but even there, she still throws a 10.0 college vault). We look for Michigan to easily make Nationals barring significant injuries enroute and to contend for the National Championship accordingly.

Third Place: Stanford Cardinal: 195.300

A surprise to some (but not to Pooh Bear's Assistants!) was the super talented and remarkably composed Cardinal team that took to the floor in Coleman Coliseum, coming away with a definitive third place showing while showing early signs of some great things to come as the season unfolds. Despite being without freshman and former USA National Team Member, Kendall Beck (torn meniscus, possibly out for the season), Stanford forged on with former USA National Team Members, Lindsay Wing and Robin Phelps (both freshmen) in the all around, along with senior Jen Exaltacion (Canadian National Team Member). All three posted impressive scores of 38.950, 38.950 and 38.550 in the all around respectively and there was excellent difficulty on the balance beam by Canadian freshman Lise Leveille (9.850) and Wing (9.850), as well as by Leveille on the floor exercise (9.850), who threw her Olympic routine to Celtic music. We were also impressed with freshman Caroline Fluhrer on the vault (9.775) and uneven bars (9.825). Stanford should have a strong uneven bars (a lot of pirouettes and combination elements), floor and vaulting team this year. Balance beam could also become a strength with the leadership of Phelps and Wing. Stanford has an excellent chance to return to Nationals this year and we would not be surprised to see them break into the Super Six with the amount of composure and difficulty they have already demonstrated this early in the season.

First Place: Georgia Bulldogs: 195.350

Alabama Crimson Tide: 195.350

There was a lot of pressure building inside of Coleman Coliseum between UGA and UA from start to finish because everyone figured the winner would come down to one of these two teams. While Stanford was indeed impressive in their showing, realistically, they would not have been close to either of these teams if falls did not have to be counted on two events: uneven bars for UGA and balance beam for UA. Georgia and Alabama also threw the most difficulty on all four events, despite this being the first meet of the season, and this was possibly the most impressive aspect of their team's respective performances, in that they did not just show up to try and win but to showcase how their programs are defined in comparison to others around the country.

Georgia's freshmen were strong in their debuts, including Sierra Sapunar (9.900 on floor exercise and 9.775 on balance beam), Cory Fritzinger (9.90 on uneven bars and second place all around, 39.175), Chelsa Byrd (9.850 on floor and 9.825 on vault) and the ultra-powerful Marline Stephens (9.875 on uneven bars). Senior Kathleen Shrieves had an off night performance on her two signature events, uneven bars (9.375) and balance beam (9.225) while Lichey struggled on uneven bars as well (9.175) but blossomed on vault (9.925) and balance beam (9.850). Junior Talya Vexler debuted a new floor routine to open up this event for the Gymdogs (9.750) and she was also solid on balance beam (9.800). After watching their performance on Saturday Night, it became clear that Georgia's season will heavily depend on the freshmen and senior members of this team. Fortunately, the freshmen appear more than ready to take on this responsibility.

Alabama's super freshman and former USA National Team member, Jeana Rice, was obviously determined to make her debut at UA one to remember. She rocked the vault with a 9.875 for her elegant Hristakieva, and garnered very respectable scores on the uneven bars (9.800), balance beam (9.725) and the floor exercise (9.725), where she threw a super difficult opening pass of a whip to 2 1/2 twist to punch front enroute to a third place all around performance (39.125). But it was once again Andree Pickens who stole the show with a super impressive all around performance of 39.450 for first place. Pickens won the uneven bars (9.925) and the floor exercise (9.925) titles, debuting an additional release move on bars (Geinger) and a rocking new floor routine. Despite congestion problems, sophomore Kristen Sterner courageously threw her new uneven bars routine move (full twisting Tkatchev) and, despite falling on this move, completed a second release move of a reverse Hecht and dismounted solidly with a double tuck out of a reverse giant for a 9.350. Sterner also stood up her floor routine (9.80 with 1/10^th deduction for a step out of bounds on the opening pass only), vault (9.675) and balance beam (9.750) performances and should be raring to go against Auburn on the 12^th with an even crisper performance. Kudos to junior Raegan Tomasek for throwing her new and super difficult move on the balance beam, an Onodi (back handspring to immediate front walkover in the opposite direction, which requires meticulous timing and balance to achieve). She barely lost control of this move and looks likely to seal it in subsequent meets. Tomasek helped to anchor a solid floor exercise performance for the Tide with a 9.875 score as well. Senior Dara Stewart admitted to some nerves opening up the balance beam event, falling on her flight series of flic flac, flic flac, layout but she recovered and performed the remaining elements superbly. Her uneven bars score of 9.775 was uncharacteristically low but she noted having some problems regrasping after a giant to handstand, which she suspected the judges may have observed. Nevertheless, she rocked the double layout dismount and elicited a roar of approval from the partisan crowd of 9,418. Senior Lissy Smith came through with a strong beam performance of 9.825, throwing two layouts and a gainer to wolf jump gymacro series. Kudos to freshman Erin Holdefer for her front pike vault (9.575) and Katie Hornecker (9.775 on vault, 9.75 on uneven bars, 9.775 on floor exercise) for her always solid contributions to the team's overall score, as well as to junior Natalie Barrington's sensational uneven bars routine (9.875), which arguably deserved a 9.95, IOHO. Freshman Stephanie Kite has a rip-snorting routine on floor once she gets that opening pass down pat (double full to immediate punch front) and Sara Scarborough only needs a few more competitions to nail down her new 10.00 vault, a very difficult Tsukahara 1/2 on 1/2 off layout (9.100 for an over-rotated, pancake face to the mat, "Not exactly where I wanted to be!", she reported later to several Tide faithful). Tide fans also have much to look forward to with the pending returns of senior Robin Hawkins (all around) and junior Alexa Martinez (uneven bars, balance beam, floor exercise) to provide additional depth on each event.