Big AL Tames Aubie Early, Turns Back Beam Gremlin

The Crimson Tide's season-ending dual meet with the Auburn Tigers in Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum started off with a display of superior force on the bars and vault from the defending National Champions but a reengagement with the beam gremlin by gymnasts Dana Pierce and Shannon Hrozek sure made things interesting in the closing moments.  Nevertheless, Bama finished with a seven-tenths victory over the Tigers and left knowing that their best performance as a team still lies ahead.  Whether this will come to fruition at the SEC Championships or Regionals remains to be seen.  Regardless, this team is to be commended for finishing strongly despite not having a week off during the regular season, while other teams had this built into their schedules.  One more meet (SEC Championships) and the team will have a well-earned break of two weeks before the all-important Regional Championships, which will be in Tuscaloosa on April 12^th.  Let's chat about some of the highlights from the Tide-Tigers meet.

Uneven Bars

 The coaches revamped the line-up in some interesting ways on this event and it worked very well. Starting off with senior Kristin Sterner (9.875), the Ionia, Michigan, native completed a smooth routine, including her two releases (full twisting Tkatchev, Tkatchev), nice handstands and a solid double front dismount.  Freshman Dana Filetti (9.850) followed up with a very confident routine, making all of her handstands, the booming Gienger release (just a little close to the high bar) and garnered incredible distance on her double front dismount, with a small check on the landing.  Sophomore Shannon Hrozek (9.875) threw a beautiful routine of her own with only a slight split in the legs at the end of her Gienger release; she reached all handstands and nailed her full pirouette to a double tuck dismount.  Freshman Larissa Stewart (9.850) has only to reach more of her handstands to score higher in the coming weeks as she has the Tkatchev and double front layout dismount down solid.  Senior Jeana Rice (9.925) finished strongly with two inverted giants, a Tkatchev out of a ½ turn and a full-in dismount.  Freshman Mari-Christine Bayer (9.825) was inserted at the anchor position this week to allow for the debut of her release (piked Jaeger) and she responded confidently, nailing the full pirouette to double tuck dismount as well.  Sophomore Michelle Reeser completed a nice exhibition routine and scored a 9.800.    Bama scored a 49.375 on the bars.

Vault

 The Tide moved next to one of their strongest events and started off with another super Yurchenko 1/1 from Jeana Rice (9.95), followed by junior Lauren Holdefer's booming Phelps (9.850).  Alexis Brion responded in kind with a super pike ½ twist (9.900) and Kristin Sterner's Yurchenko ½ off front layout had one step back for a 9.850.  Freshman Dana Pierce (9.875) got incredible distance on her Yurchenko 1/1 and freshman Ashley Miles put the final stamp on the event with a super octane Yurchenko 1/1 of her own for a well-deserved 9.95.  Bama finished with a 49.525 on the vault.

Floor Exercise

 The Tide was poised to hit their floor routines in a big way. Alabama was up by almost a full point over the Tigers and was pumped up by the large Bama crowd in attendance to push their lead even higher.  Starting with Michelle Reeser's dynamic routine to "Devil Went Down to Georgia" (9.875) and the four tumbling pass routine by Lauren Holdefer (9.875), the Tide was well on their way.  Kristin Sterner (9.900) had two terrific double pikes and very confident dance and Jeana Rice (9.900) threw all of her difficulty, including the pike full-in, whip to 2 ½ twist, whip to double full.  Junior Stephanie Kite (9.850) also threw her opening E pass (front through to a double full to a punch front) and her remaining passes with super confidence.  Ashley Miles (9.95) opened with a double layout (one step forward to check the landing) and finished with a perfect double pike. Alexis Brion exhibited her best routine of the year, opening with a whip to bhs to high double tuck and nailing her second and third passes for a 9.875 (at the meet, a 9.975 was flashed as the final score but the coaches double checked this afterwards and noted the accurate final score on the judge's sheet).  Alexis had that spark back from last year and it was great to see again.  She looked very fit and focused on this event. Bama finished on floor with a 49.500.

Balance Beam

 Leading by over a point at this juncture, the Tide needed only five solid routines to bank a high team total score.  Michelle Reeser started things off in grand fashion, never stopping throughout her routine and showing fantastic amplitude on her flight series and the switch leap to two straddle leaps for a 9.900.  Unfortunately, Dana Pierce fell on the flight series (second element) that had been giving her trouble during long warm-ups (9.275).  Shannon Hrozek entered the fray next.  Hrozek had a beautiful flight series and a crisp gym-acro series completed and it looked like this was going to be one of her best routines of the season.  However, she had a major bend at the waist on her hitch kick to sheep jump combination (after second element was completed) and even wind-milled a few times with her arms, which cost her vital bonus tenths.  Her dismount of a double twist was also sluggish in form and had a step in the process.  Shannon seemed to still be favoring her knee a bit on the leaps.  Mari-Christine Bayer (9.900) was the complete opposite in terms of completing her elements without hesitation (front aerial to bhs to Korbut; front walkover to needle scale; gainer pike dismount, stuck cold).  Kristin Sterner also was confidence personified, throwing a beautiful flight series (bhs, bhs, layout), a gorgeous switch leap ½ and a double pike dismount (one foot back) for a 9.900.  Jeana Rice anchored the event with a solid routine of her own, including her flight series (bhs, layout, layout) and the ¾ wolf, her gym-acro series and the double twist dismount for a 9.925.  Bama finished beam with a 48.900 and the final team total was 197.300. 

The Crimson Tide heads into the SEC Championships ranked #5 in the country and has the nation's #1 all around gymnast, Jeana Rice, leading the way, hopefully to their second title in four years.  We'll have all the highlights online at www.gymtide.com during and after the meet, so join us one and all if you can't make it in person. Roll Tide!