Crimson Tide Keeps Eye on the Prize, Earns Title #5 

The 2003 SEC Gymnastics Championship went down to the wire for the second straight year Saturday Night at Bartow Arena on the campus of the University of Alabama-Birmingham.  And once again, it was a contest between the same two teams from start to finish.  With Alabama holding a one-tenth lead over the Bulldogs after three events each, Georgia knew they had to have their best vaulting of the season to have a chance to pass the Tide's similar scoring power on the floor exercise and they came within a whisker of pulling it off.  But tremendous floor routines from Kristin Sterner and Stephanie Kite helped to set up freshman Ashley Miles for the routine of her life.  After rocking her three passes and raising her hand to the roof in a final dance move salute, Miles began to jump for joy and promptly launched herself at Bama Assistant Coach, Bryan Raschilla, who insisted that he could not lift her in his arms any higher than she was bouncing at the time! Alabama claimed their fifth SEC title with a final score of 197.575 to Georgia's 195.525 while there was still one official rotation to go.  The highlights were many, so we'll dive right in.

6^th Place: Tie: Kentucky Wildcats (194.875) and Arkansas Razorbacks (194.875)

The Wildcats and new SEC team Arkansas competed to a deadlock tie.  Kentucky was paced by sophomore Michelle Gales on the floor (9.850) and junior Aronda Primault on the vault (9.850) while outgoing senior Melanie Zaharias performed the Cats' strongest vault for a 9.875.  Senior Julia Gore rotated a confident bars set for a 9.825.  Meanwhile, Arkansas' freshmen held their own with nice performances on the balance beam by Katie Hardman (9.850), Hannah McLeod (9.825) and Dana McQuillin (9.800).  Four gymnasts went all-around for the Razorbacks, with McLeod finishing the highest (39.050).  Both teams had good support from their fans, especially the Razorbacks, who called the Hogs on a regular basis in support of their gals.  Both teams will have to set their sights on next year as neither will have a high enough RQS score to advance to their respective Regional Championships for the 2003 post-season. 

5^th Place: Auburn Tigers (195.025)

Looking to improve their final standing in the SEC after posting impressive scores during the regular season, Auburn began the meet on one of their strongest events, the uneven bars, but encountered challenges right away. Only sophomore Courtney Puckett was able to score above a 9.750 (9.850) on this event and the team also had to count a fall on the balance beam one rotation later, despite Puckett's (9.850) and senior Cheryl Lancaster's (9.800) confident routines.  It was also Courtney Puckett who anchored the team in the all around for a 39.500.  Puckett was most impressive on the floor exercise (9.95), where she utilized a brilliant smile, dynamic choreography and intricate front tumbling passes to finish tied for third on this event across all gymnasts.   Senior Mary Nell Pate was sharp and enthusiastic on the floor (9.875) but struggled on the remaining three events. Head Coach Jeff Thompson was named SEC Coach of the Year after improving his team's average scoring significantly in 2003 and reaching a national ranking of #11 at one point during the regular season.  The Tigers finished with a #17 RQS ranking nationally and will go on to compete in the Central Regional Championship in Tuscaloosa.

4^th Place: LSU Tigers (195.650)

LSU drew the balance beam for rotation one and suffered one fall that they were able to drop from their team scoring of a 48.900.  SEC Freshman of the Year, April Burkholder, paced the team on this and every other event, showing amazing confidence and excellent difficulty throughout her routines.  She vaulted a Yurchenko 1/1 for a 9.800, threw two major release moves on the uneven bars (Gienger, pak Salto) for a 9.875 and executed a nice full in on the floor with sharp choreography to boot (9.900). Her all around total was a 39.450, good enough for fifth place.  Other routines that stood out included Katherine Hilton on the bars (9.875) and Terin Martinjak on the floor (9.875).  LSU finished with a #14 RQS ranking nationally and will go on to compete at the West Regional Championship, hosted by the University of Washington.

3^rd Place: Florida Gators (195.950)

With a new coach and a renewed team spirit this season, Florida was hoping to break the Georgia-Alabama stranglehold on the SEC Championship that goes back to 1989, the last time the Gators won.  Despite having the preferred Olympic Rotation order after an initial bye and ending up on floor in the seventh rotation, the Gators were never able to take proper advantage of this and really seemed to lack emotion and spark at critical times.   Perhaps this was partly due to the fact that junior all-around gymnast Kara Waterhouse was sitting out the meet.  Faehn replaced her on vault and floor with sophomore Kim Schatz, who struggled on floor (9.600) and vault (9.725). On a bright note, freshman Amanda Stroud returned from injury status to perform a confident floor set (9.800), that consisted of a double tuck and a 2 ½ twist punch front.  The Gators struggled on their best event, the uneven bars, where Erinn Dooley came off twice (8.600) and Erin Pendleton came off once (9.300).  However, Kristin Stucky was crisp on bars (9.900) and super-focused on beam (9.900), where she threw an Onodi and a nifty gainer pike dismount.  Orley Szmuch contributed a nice beam set (9.875) but bounded backwards out of bounds on her opening double pike on the floor and landed her final double tuck bent severely at the knees (9.525).  Seniors Lindsey Miner (39.350) and Jenny Carow (39.225) provided solid all around performances to help the team claim third place.  Look for Florida to bounce back in two weeks, as they will meet up with Georgia at the Southeast Regional Championship in Athens.

2^nd Place: Georgia Bulldogs (197.525)

Only one-tenth behind the Crimson Tide after three events each, the Bulldogs were hoping to literally vault over their opponent and bring home a third straight SEC Title.  With Alabama on their strongest event, the floor exercise, the crowd was instrumental in helping to fuel the performances of both teams, as routine after routine was presented like moves on a chessboard.  Georgia had only one vault score below a 9.90 (Cory Fritzinger's Hristakieva for a 9.875) and tried valiantly to check Alabama with an impressive 49.650 on this event.  However, the Tide responded with a check-mate of their own, resulting in a 49.600 total on the floor and a final advantage of .050 over the pesky Dawgs.  Georgia was impressive on the beam (49.375) but struggled a bit on the uneven bars (49.150).  Junior Chelsa Byrd shared SEC Gymnast of the Year Honors with Bama's junior star, Jeana Rice.  Georgia will host the Southeast Regional Championship in Athens and they are expected to easily qualify to Nationals in Lincoln.

1^st Place: Alabama Crimson Tide (197.575)

How much excitement can a poor fan stand? This competition had so much electricity going on between the two fiercest rivals in NCAA collegiate gymnastics that you could have heated a small city with the overflow.  Alabama clearly took hold of this energy from the start and rode it all the way to victory.  In the process they made the most of their Olympic Rotation draw by posting a 49.325 on the vault, with strong efforts from Kristin Sterner (9.800), Alexis Brion (9.850), Lauren Holdefer (9.850), Jeana Rice (9.850), Dana Pierce (9.875) and Ashley Miles (9.900).  The Tide used the second rotation (bye) to review their performances and prepare for the uneven bars, where they posted a solid 49.275 team total.  Critical routines on this event were thrown by three freshmen: Dana Filetti (9.800), Mari-Christine Bayer (9.875), and Larissa Stewart (9.90).  Jeana Rice (9.925) threw a terrific routine that garnered two scores of 9.95 and two 9.90s from the judges. Building upon this performance, Bama faced down their beam nemesis from last year.  Though Michelle Reeser (9.900) set up freshman Dana Pierce perfectly, the Advance, Indiana native was unable to tame that flight series for the second week in a row (9.350).  But All American Shannon Hrozek came through with a 9.825 performance, followed in succession by solid to spectacular performances from Mari-Christine Bayer (9.825), Kristin Sterner (9.875) and Jeana Rice (9.950).  The Tide tallied a 49.375 on beam and then went back out on a bye before heading to the floor exercise with a one-tenth lead over Georgia.  Hats off to the largely Alabama crowd that pumped the team up from one performance to the next.  Michelle Reeser (9.875), Lauren Holdefer (9.850), Kristin Sterner (9.950), and Jeana Rice (9.875) paved the way for Stephanie Kite (9.925) and Ashley Miles (9.975).  Kite's routine may have been the most critical next to Miles because it was not only executed superbly, but was thrown at the peak of Georgia's performance on the vault (Byrd's 10).  While Bulldog fans were drowning out Kite's music with screams of joy the steady junior was ultra-composed and seemed to feed off the competitive moment, finishing her final pass and Popanova with perfect timing.  Garnering the coveted sixth position on floor, Miles could not have asked for a better moment to show off her own brand of gymnastics power.  With all eyes upon her, she launched her 5'7" frame into an effortless double layout for her opening pass, followed by pinpoint accuracy in her landing of pass two (front - front full - front layout) and ending with a super high double pike for her final tumbling pass, with a perfect landing as well.  And to think she just returned to competition four weeks ago. Wow.

After relishing their fifth SEC title for a little while longer, Alabama will take a few days off before hitting the practice facility to prepare for Regionals.  They can also look forward to a relaxed weekend, free from competition for the first time in three months.  We hope to see the Bama Nation in Coleman Coliseum on April 12^th cheering the ladies on to another Regional Title.  Roll Tide.