Big Al Tames A Wildcat To Continue The Streak

To paraphrase that great song by Little Anthony and the Imperials, things were kind of spooky this past Saturday afternoon when the Kentucky Wildcats and the Alabama Crimson Tide clashed in Coleman Coliseum.  For the home team and their devoted fans, the meet appeared to shift from moments of befuddled exasperation to sheer elation and incredulity at the skills being executed.  Case in point: after going through terrific long warm-ups on vault and floor, freshman Ashley Miles suddenly experienced the heebie-jeebies during her three-minute touch on vault, resulting in three balks and the coaches' decision to scratch her from the line-up for precautionary reasons.  In direct contrast, after struggling during her vault long and short warm-ups, sophomore Alexis Brion proceeded to vault the lights out in the anchor position, earning a 9.925! The Kentucky "mojo" followed Alabama to the uneven bars, where the Tide experienced their first significant problems of the season on this apparatus, having to count a fall in the process.  Checking the stands at this point, we noticed that Salto was beyond the benefit of smelling salts.   The Tide moved next to the balance beam, preparing to stay on for dear life.  While Bama's nerves were apparent at times their tenacity won the day, as the team went 6 for 6 and a collective sigh of relief was heard 'round Coleman Coliseum.  Or was that Salto waking up from his fainting spell? Well, he was just in time to witness the Crimson Tide's dynamic floor performances, enroute to a comfortable victory margin of 196.475 to Kentucky's 195.125.  Alabama junior Jeana Rice claimed the all-around title once again with a total score of 39.625.  Now, for more details... 

Vault

Freshman Dana Pierce was not scheduled to vault this week, but when Miles had to scratch, Pierce was inserted first up, throwing a Yurchenko layout for a 9.65.  Not bad when you're called upon in a pinch. Next, perfection in the form of Jeana Rice showed up, just in time to nail a magnificent Yurchenko 1/1 (9.975).  The nation's new leader in the all-around received a 10 from one judge and a 9.95 from the second judge.  Junior Stephanie Kite was not as fortunate with her pike ½ twist, which was landed a bit off center, her chest low and forward (9.625).  Senior Kristin Sterner pumped the volume back up in Coleman with a terrific Yurchenko ½ off front layout (9.900) and junior Lauren Holdefer boomed her ¼ on ¾ off front pike for a 9.700 (achieved great distance but was off center and landed bent at the knees and low).  In response, sophomore Alexis Brion decided to vault her best pike ½ twist ever for a 9.925. Missing from the vault line-up this week was sophomore Shannon Hrozek, who strained her knee a bit during long warm-ups and was also rested as a precautionary measure. Bama finished with a 49.150 on the vault.

On the uneven bars, Kentucky scored a 48.775, highlighted by a very confident routine from senior Julia Gore (a huge Gienger release and a high double tuck dismount for a 9.875) and sophomore Michelle Gales (9.800).

Uneven Bars

Bama's first two gymnasts up on bars experienced significant execution problems.  Sophomore Michelle Reeser (9.050) missed her Tkatchev release and Dana Filetti (9.300) sat down her double front dismount despite a near perfect routine up to this point.  Kristin Sterner responded with a very confident routine, nailing both the full twisting Tkatchev and the Tkatchev release moves and she stuck her double front dismount (9.875).  Inserted back into the line-up this week, Dana Pierce completed all of her major moves, including the inverted giants, the Tkatchev (caught just a little close to the bar) and her new dismount, the reverse tuck off the high bar (9.725).  The lower score was likely due to her missing a few handstands and taking a small step on the dismount.  Freshman Larissa Stewart stepped up next and swung another super confident set for a 9.875, nailing her double layout dismount.  Jeana Rice (9.825) had some form execution problems on her transition to the low bar but completed the big moves with ease (Tkatchev, inverted giants, full in dismount, stuck the landing). The Tide scored a 48.600 on the uneven bars.

Kentucky sensed something was in the air, as they vaulted to a solid team score of 49.150, highlighted by Julia Gore's pike front (9.85) and junior Aronda Primault's pike ½ twist (9.900). 

Balance Beam

First up, Michelle Reeser was very precise as she executed the tricky moves (bhs-layout-Korbut) but left out one of her straddle jumps (switch leap to straddle combo) when the landing on the first straddle did not feel right (9.825).  Freshman Rachael Delahoussaye was inserted for Shannon Hrozek and threw extra difficulty this week (wolf to Korbut combination) but had too many balance checks throughout that interrupted the flow of her very graceful choreography (9.675).  Kristin Sterner had a great score building until she took a lunging step forward on her super difficult double pike dismount (9.825).  Larissa Stewart appeared to catch the "mojo" at this point and, for the first time this season on beam the freshman was noticeably tentative throughout her routine.  Leaps and flight series normally executed with crisp confidence were too deliberate this week, suffering from breaks at the shoulder or waist levels at various points as well for a 9.625.  Fortunately, Dana Pierce (9.900) and Jeana Rice (9.900) chose the right moment to execute two very solid routines, highlighted by a great two-footed bhs-layout combination and a bhs-layout-layout flight series respectively.  Bama finished on beam with a total of 49.125. 

On the floor exercise, Kentucky scored a team total of 49.025, with an excellent routine by Michelle Gales (9.925 for a super double layout opening pass) and a solid routine by Aronda Primault (9.85) that included a double front Arabian (very nice height but loose form and two steps forward on the landing cost her a higher score).  

Floor Exercise

The Alabama fans in attendance must be given a lot of the credit for pushing the Tide gymnasts on to a higher score after their opening problems on vault and bars.  The fans were on their feet cheering after several of the beam routines and stayed on their feet much of the time during the floor routines, starting with Lauren Holdefer (9.875).  She had no problems with the boundaries this week and again threw four passes (three double backs, one in pike position).  This set Alexis Brion up perfectly but she lost air-time on her second pass and sat down the third element as a result (9.250).  Her opening double tuck was super high.  Michelle Reeser rode to her rescue with the crowd's favorite routine to "Devil Went Down to Georgia", executing all three passes with panache for a 9.925.  Stephanie Kite landed her opening pass of a front through to a double full to a punch front perfectly and was just off her music at the end a tiny bit, resulting in a 9.900.  The debut of Ashley Miles' floor routine in front of the home crowd super-charged the atmosphere immediately as she nailed her opening double layout, the second pass of a front, front full, front layout, and the final pass of a double pike, with perfect dance timing along the way for a 9.975.  To say that she was elated is truly an understatement, as the freshman launched herself at her teammates immediately after saluting the judges.  Yep, Bama's newest star on floor has arrived.  Finishing up with her own brand of difficulty (full in pike, whip to 2 ½ twist, whip to double full), Jeana Rice pulled off a nifty 9.925 to seal the victory handily.  Bama's final tally on floor was 49.600 and their final team total was 196.475.

The Kentucky Wildcats finally experienced some of their own "mojo" problems. Ending on balance beam, sophomore Kara Pretigiacomo fell on her flight series (9.125) and Staci O'Keefe fell as well (9.075).  Julia Gore was able to respond with a more confident performance for a 9.800 and Aronda Primault had some nice difficulty as well (punch front mount) for a 9.775.  Kentucky finished on beam with a score of 48.175 and a final team score of 195.125.