The third Super Six Challenge is now history and, while Alabama was unable to defend its two previous titles (won in 2000, tied with Georgia for first in 2001), the Crimson Tide was successful at achieving second place against some fine competition, which included Georgia, UCLA (defending NCAA Champions), Florida, LSU, and Penn State. Alabama can be doubly proud of their achievement given the fact that they were not at full strength on all events due to the absence of sophomore All American, Jeana Rice, and considering that they had to start their first meet of the year on the balance beam, the great equalizer in gymnastics. As with each meet, there were many positives as well as areas to work on during the next week of practice. Alabama will have no time to rest, as they compete once again against the Georgia Bulldogs at home on Friday, January 18. The Bulldogs are clearly serving notice to the entire country that THEY are the team to beat in 2002, having already scored 196.525 or higher in their first three meets of the young season. On the other hand, Tide fans will need to be patient, as the coaches will be taking a different route towards the NCAA Championships this year by building in difficulty over the coming months rather than throwing it all out at the beginning. Remember, it's not where you START, that matters, it's where you FINISH!

Balance Beam

Commentary: There appeared to be some questions about Alabama's start values on several of the routines because the scores coming up were uncharacteristically lower than we have seen in previous years, even in a first meet. In addition, after reviewing the tape, we noticed that, while the Tide did not suffer a fall, they appeared to be tight and tentative at times, and a few of the ladies took a long pause before dismounting, which may have led to a deduction from the judges as well. Other general observations we made of the routines: a lack of difficult dismounts (exception: Kristin Sterner) and a few routines possibly lacking in bonus difficulty. Coach Patterson stated in her post-meet commentary to the press to expect a much better showing on this event by the ladies in the next week. Note: Alabama finished fourth of six teams on the balance beam at the Super Six (UGA: 1st; UF: 2nd; PSU: 3rd; UA: 4th; UCLA: 5th; LSU: 6th).

Raegan Tomasek: (Senior-2nd Team All American) Punch front onto the beam was solid; flight series of back handspring to layout was perfect; switch leap to straddle jump combo was effortless; she ran into difficulty when she attempted to throw a combination wolf jump to 1/4 handstand dive (her gymacro series); she had to repeat the wolf jump and later had to lift her leg twice on her needle scale after a balance check with her hands on the beam. She dismounted with a perfect back handspring to full twist off the side of the beam for a 9.65.

Tiffany Byrd: (Sophomore) Straddle press to handstand mount, back down to the beam for a side leg pose, no checks; flight series of two back handsprings to a layout was completed with very nice extension and toe point and the tiniest of foot checks; switch leap to straddle jump combo; switch leap to gainer back handspring was perfect; dismount of a round off to a full twist at the end of the beam was landed perfectly, for a 9.70.

Alexa Martinez: (Senior) Head roll to stag leap was flawless; flight series of two-footed back handspring to two-footed layout was executed with a slight leg lift to balance; her straddle Popanova (a 360 degree straddle jump) had a slight foot balance check but the wolf Popanova that followed was perfect; her switch leap to wolf jump combination was okay but we noticed a slight arm balance check, as if her left arm got tangled up alongside her body as she was completing the first leap and going into the second; she has left out her straddle-straddle leap combination this year and dismounted with a side gainer, for a 9.65.

Natalie Barrington: (Senior) Her flight series of two back handsprings to a layout was landed awkwardly because she had to bend at the knees on the third element, almost as if she thought she was running out of room and had to crunch down the layout to save space! She threw a nice switch leap to straddle jump combination but lacked some amplitude on the second element; a switch leap to sissone to Korbut (fish flop) lacked connection between the first and second leap elements, but she covered it nicely; nice choreography and hand presentation throughout the routine; gainer dismount off the side of the beam for a 9.575.

Andree Pickens: (Senior-1st Team All American, 1999 NCAA Champion) Punch front mount with a balance check; switch leap to switch leap combination was a problem on the second element, where she had to touch the beam with her hand to balance herself (automatic .05 deduction); her flight series of two back handsprings to a layout required one leg lift to balance her landing of the third element; a nice and high punch front; gainer dismount off the side of the beam with one hop to the side, for a 9.25.

Kristin Sterner (Junior-1st Team All American) A beautiful punch front mount; flight series of two back handsprings to a layout was flawless; straddle leap to a straddle Popanova combination was perfect; a 1 1/2 turn was executed beautifully; a 3/4 switch leap; wolf jump to standing back pike combination, no balance checks; dismount of a double pike, tiny hop on landing, for a 9.775.

Floor Exercise

Commentary: Alabama had a bye after their balance beam performance, which provided them an opportunity to reflect on their scores and prepare for a stronger showing on one of their best events, floor. It was clear at this point that they needed to relax, have some fun, and pull from their depth in an effort to push the scores up higher. By combining seasoned veterans with relative newcomers and one rookie, Bama pulled off the highest team score on the floor exercise for the Super Six Challenge, a 49.475. LSU was second followed by UGA, Florida, UCLA, and Penn State.

Raegan Tomasek (Senior) Opening the event with new music for 2002 (a high-energy rock combination of Violent Femmes, AC-DC, Joan Jett), she threw a double pike as her first pass, followed by a double twist and ending with a front handspring, front layout to front tuck, for a 9.85. She is expected to add a double front arabian and a double tuck to beef up her difficulty over the coming weeks.

Stephanie Kite (Sophomore) She retains her music from 2001 (Jerry Lee Lewis' Great Balls of Fire) and opened with a wolf Popanova before throwing her first pass of a front handspring to a 2 1/2 twist, followed by a front handspring to front full (twist) to a front layout; she threw a nice double turn to straddle Popanova combination before ending with a front handspring to front full to a round off to a step-out, layout as her final pass, for a 9.875. Stephanie is in better shape and it shows in her endurance throughout this routine compared to this time last year.

Lauren Holdefer (Sophomore) There's lots of energy in this routine, which is the same from 2001 as well. Country rock music and an opening pass of a double pike, a second pass of a double tuck, ending with a front handspring to front layout to a front tuck, for a 9.875. Lots of nice leap combinations (cat leap full, two wolf Popanovas to a straddle Popanova combo) and more crowd-pleasing dance steps; if Lauren flirts a little more with the audience (SMILE!) this routine will be hard to beat.

Alexis Brion (Freshman) This was a pleasant surprise for the fans in attendance, who were not expecting her to debut on the floor until later in the season. However, Alexis was clearly ready to begin her college career and sold her routine from the beginning with an electric smile and a super high double tuck as her opening pass, followed by a crisp front layout to front full (twist) to front tuck, ending with two front layouts to a front tuck, for a 9.925. The only thing about this routine that was a little perplexing was the choice of music, which seemed rather tame for such a dynamic tumbler as Brion. The music and the choreography appeared to fade somewhat towards the end of the routine.

Alexa Martinez (Senior) She has fantastic new music (Esteban's guitar instrumental version of The Godfather main theme) and wonderful new choreography. She will be throwing four passes in this routine but chose to debut only three for the Super Six Challenge. She experienced a little difficulty on her opening pass of three layouts, having to tuck the third one quickly when she lost a bit of punch on her second one (her grin at Bryan at the end of this initial pass was sheepish and grateful at the same time!). We figured she was deducted anywhere from 2.5 to 3 tenths on this one execution error because the rest of the routine was flawless, including the Popanova (straddle and wolf) jump combinations. Her remaining passes were a round off to double twist, and a front handspring to a 1 1/2 twist to a round off to a layout-step-out, for a final score of 9.725.

Kristin Sterner (Junior - 1st Team All American) A really nice folk music combination (Mexican and Greek) provided a dramatic backdrop for her three tumbling passes: opening with a high and tight double pike, followed by a front handspring to 1 1/2 twist to a layout-step-out, ending with another super high double pike, for a 9.95. The crowd really got involved with this music, clapping along throughout.

Vault

Commentary: Bama chose to go with four 9.90 value vaults instead of three 10 vaults as originally planned due to Stephanie Kite falling forward on her double pike for a 9.30 score. We expect to see this team score (48.85) to increase over the next week with the addition of sophomore Jeana Rice's Hristakieva (a 10.0 vault) and the debut of Erin Holdefer's pike with a 1/2 twist. A pleasant thrill was seeing Andree Pickens return to her old vaulting form with a nice Yurchenko 1/1, which is one of three vaults she throws that are valued at a 10. Note: Alabama finished fourth on vault: UCLA: 1st, LSU: 2nd, UGA: 3rd, UA: 4th, UF: 5th, Penn State: 6th.

Lauren Holdefer (Sophomore) She threw a very nice and high front pike, landing it with one step forward for a 9.70.

Raegan Tomasek (Senior) The form and extension/toe point on her front pike were very nice and she landed it with a tiny hop forward, for a 9.75.

Stephanie Kite (Sophomore) She over-rotated her front pike and seemed to hold the pike position too long, causing her to land late and stumble forward to balance herself with a knee eventually dropping forward as well, for a 9.30. Her form has improved but she still needs to garner more height in order to complete the rotation without bending her knees on the second salto.

Erin Holdefer (Sophomore) She was originally planning on throwing a pike with a 1/2 twist but returned to the front pike after Stephanie's fall. The result was very solid, no leg separation, one small step forward to check the landing, for a 9.725. Look for the higher valued vault next week against UGA.

Kristin Sterner (Junior) She had a nice run and spring off the board but did not appear to get as much push off the horse as she needed, resulting in a landing low at the waist that necessitated a balance step to the left, for a 9.75.

Andree Pickens (Senior - 1st Team All American) She returned to the vaulting line-up for 2002 with a vengeance, throwing a Yurchenko 1/1 with excellent form and a perfect landing, for a 9.925. She was likely deducted for not garnering more distance on this vault.

Uneven Bars

Commentary: With this event, it was expected that the judges would be focusing on the handstands, where they are now authorized to take off between .05 and .10 for failure to reach perfect vertical position during uprises and pirouettes on top of the bars. The scores for all teams were lower in accordance with these new rules. Alabama was able to achieve a second place team score (behind UCLA by only .05) and overall had a solid performance with some uncharacteristic errors that should be easily corrected by their next competition. Note: UCLA: 1st, UA: 2nd; UGA: 3rd, LSU: 4th, Penn State: 5th, UF: 6th.

Tiffany Byrd (Sophomore) Nice lines, extension, toe point; half turn followed by a full turn to immediate Tkatchev release, half turn to straddle back handstand to the low bar, another full turn to a double tuck dismount, which she landed solidly for a 9.75.

Shannon Hrozek (Freshman) What a great debut for the Texas native! She attacked the bars after initially appearing to be pretty nervous while waiting for the judges' signal to begin her routine. Very confident swing throughout, lots of giants to handstands, full turns, a Geinger release, a straddle reverse to a half turn, followed by full turn to an immediate double tuck dismount, with one step back on her landing, for a 9.75.

Kristin Sterner (Junior - 1st Team All American) She completed her two major release moves with no problems (full twisting Tkatchev and a Tkatchev) but slightly missed 3 handstand positions; however, she nailed her double front dismount, receiving a 9.80 from the judges.

Raegan Tomasek (Senior) Excellent toe point and extension, especially on her half turn to piked Jaeger release. She slightly missed perfection on two handstands and chose to leave out her toe on-toe off move, but dismounted with a high double front, one hop forward on the landing, for a 9.825. This routine appeared to be well-liked by the judges despite the small errors. When Raegan adds in the rest of her combinations and nails that landing, watch out!

Natalie Barrington (Senior - 1st Team All American) A marvelous routine until she completed her Pak Salto release from the high to low bar, after which she over-rotated slightly her straddle uprise to handstand and had to accommodate by doing a half turn and repeating the move in the other direction before moving onto the rest of her routine; she dismounted with a full turn on the top bar to an immediate double tuck, small step on the landing, for a 9.675. She could do this routine in her sleep, so look for a higher score by next week.

Andree Pickens (Senior - 1st Team All American) She threw four major releases and left out the Geinger release and was able to master all of her handstands except two (slightly off vertical), ending with a beautiful full in dismount that she rocked, for a 9.925.