in Palo Alto, California for a fantastic meet against the Stanford Cardinal. Roll Tide!

scores. The final team scores will stay despite protests from both Cook and Patterson (Cook was successful in getting Drew's beam score raised to a 9.300 earlier).

We look forward to breaking down the vault, bars and beam routines more closely for the post-meet commentary to see if we can get a better sense of the pattern of deductions by two of the judges in particular. The floor scores were very tight but easier to justify in the final analysis for both teams.

with a 38.675 score.

Brittany Comeaux had a great performance tonight on the bars (9.825) and vault (9.800) that again, the scores do not reflect. She is about to be interviewed by the radio crew after Shannon Hrozek finishes up.

despite a fall on her final element on floor (2 1/2 out of the 1 1/2).

Ashley Miles was held out of the all around to rest her on floor and beam.

Vault: Shannon Hrozek (1st)
Bars: Terin Humphrey (1st)
Beam: Shannon Hrozek (1st)
Floor: Mallory Machnik (1st)

had to count a fall on floor, that's how tight the scoring was. It seemed like the judges were taking off 1 to 1.5 for the slightest check.

Alabama finishes on the beam with a 48.250 and you would certainly think they too fell on several routines but they did not have to count Michelle Reeser's "technical" fall on her Korbut. So again, 1 to 1.5 or 2 tenths off for checks.

Hardman, despite throwing a pretty strong routine overall on floor receives a 9.700. We are looking forward to talking to our coaches and getting feedback from them on what they think happened tonight with the scores. The crowd is quiet and everyone seems perplexed around these parts.

layouts. We would have expected a composition deduction there for the easier ending pass compared to the opening tumbling pass.

Humphrey receives a 9.825.

the side of the beam on her Korbut (swingdown) but does not come off the beam. Mari Bayer received a 9.525 for her beam and Reeser gets a 9.300 (technically they counted it a fall on the beam).

Humphrey is through her triple twist mount and the Kotchetkova to back handspring layout; switch leap to the Omeliantchik, dismount of the double tuck, nice and high, one tiny step. Champions respond to the challenge!

opening double tuck) and Cortez just fell on her opening double pike (and back out of bounds).

Hrozek came back with a superb routine (9.850) on the beam, she concentrated on each element like we've not seen in some time and nails her double twist dismount.

NFL music with some rapping beats to funk it up; two front layouts, tuck full leap and.... land of Goshen...Rachael Delahoussaye receives a 9.550 for her beam. We are gasping here on press row. Something is going on here and Sarah is filing the protests (we've not seen her protest a score in the longest time).

Filetti is through her handstand to the back layout stepout (small shoulder break and shift of one foot to balance the landing)and the straddle-straddle-wolf and the bhs-Korbut; bends a bit at the waist on the sheep jump but solidly stands up the double twist dismount, tiny hop to the right. She receives a 9.500 (again, she did not fall, she did not touch the beam or have a major break other than the aforementioned checks).

Shannon Hrozek responds with a gorgeous routine that one judge gives a 9.90 and the other a 9.80. So we waited before telling you it was gorgeous because we can't tell where the judges are going tonight on the beam.

Mari Bayer will get deducted heavily because she struggled on the front aerial and bent at the waist on the difficult switch 1/2 leap.


Barnett received a 9.700 for her floor and Peacock a 9.700 as well.

in 2003 and tonight she is the lead-off anchor. She is through her wolf full (perfect) and the bhs-layout (perfect part II); nice bhs-Korbut, cartwheel half down onto the beam and she dismounts with a gainer back pike, stuck landing. Whoosh!

Rachael Delahoussaye is up first on the beam for the Tide and we need tenacity, focus and hog-kicking routines like we saw in warm-ups earlier.

the floor with a 48.450 final total with subpar performances as a whole.

Now, Mari Bayer's score is perplexing all of us here but the other routines had noticeable deductions that resulted in the final scores accordingly, including step-outs (Erin and Alexis) and execution or form problems for others (Pierce and Filetti). But again, Pierce should have been scored higher than Rightley, given no step-outs or other significant execution problems in her routine.

9.325, while Hardman stays on for a 9.725. There's something in the air tonight with both teams. They are not hitting their routines crisply in this rotation despite being strong respectively on these events.

You have to give our coaches credit, they're not afraid to throw the difficulty despite the tight scoring and the miscues here and there by our gals on floor tonight.

Filetti receives a 9.725 and she was heavily deducted for the cowboy form on the double front Arabian and not drilling the final pass (whip 1/2 to front layout, step forward on the second element).

Alabama has one of its lowest scores on the floor in recent memory as a result, despite not suffering any falls.

drills the landing but steps back and out on her third pass of the difficult double tuck, for a 9.675 final score. Filetti has been inserted for Miles to allow the double front arabian to be thrown, which she does and stands up!

and Terin Humphrey had a touchdown on her final element on the floor after throwing a ton of difficulty prior to this. She opened with a full twisting double pike, followed by a triple twist and ended with a 1 1/2 to a 2 1/2, touching down on the last element with one hand. She receives a 9.250 as a result. Wow. The routine still needs a little work in the dance sequences at certain points where there could be better interpretation of the music shifts.

either fell on her flight series (wind-milled over past the waist to the side with a leg lifted on her right as well) or touched down at some other point. Erin Rightley receives a 9.650 for her floor routine, which is very interesting considering that she stepped out clearly and Dana Pierce did not (same score) and overall had a cleaner routine.

and dance and we continue to be perplexed by the judging. Erin Rightley is not having a good go on the floor in response, stepping back out again on her opening pike and popping out a bit on the Rudi (1 1/2 out of a front). She finishes with a super front-front full-front pike.

Emily Peacock is through her flight series and her gymacro (switch leap to one-handed back handspring). Nice wolf to a sheep jump and she will dismount with a stuck double tuck.

on her flight series (layout).

Pierce is harshly deducted for that second pass and receives a 9.650. Again, no stumbles forward or back on the other two passes and she did not miss any of her dance elements from what we could see.

Mari Bayer opens with a beautiful double pike, super landing and comes back with a front-front full-front tuck. She finishes with a double twist, solid landing as well. Let's see what they give this routine.

of two back handsprings to a single twist dismount.

Pierce opens with a beautiful double pike on the floor but has just a little trouble on the second pass of two front layouts (she slightly under-rotated the final layout, with her chest not coming forward at the same time her feet were landing, leading to a step back to balance). She must finish strongly. Double twist to punch front - and she does!

Triple turn on the floor from Terin Humphrey and she is talking to the Pattersons about her routine before they come together as a team and look at the final line-up order (a change is being made). Sarah Patterson is pumping the gals up, challenging them to hit their routines and get the higher scores they are capable of.

a 9.825 for sticking her vault (no waving of the arms, not obviously off direction). We'll look at the replay on this one as well to see if she hopped back. Bama will have a 49.125 on the vault as a team and a running total of 98.100 to Arkansas' 48.825 on the bars and 97.375 for their running score.

Melissa Leigh received a 9.775 for her bars and Peacock a 9.800.

Now, the form and height were superb because we could see it right down the vault runway to our left. But perhaps the hop back was larger than we could detect from our position on press row.

Hardman completes her routine with a hop forward on the double tuck and receives a 9.700.

9.825 (small hop on the landing). Hrozek comes behind her and drills the Yurchenko 1/1, not a step, not a lean, for a 9.90.

"tight, scores are way tight". Another example, Dana Filetti nails her vault, absolutely not a step and receives a 9.725. She throws the Yurchenko full twist on - back pike off, a rare vault.

McQuillin gets a 9.725 for her bars routine. Cortez has a Tkatchev and fails to reach her handstands and takes a step on the double tuck and receives a 9.65 score as a result. Final score still seems pretty harsh.

double tuck, landing it well. Nice extension and toe point during her uneven bars routine.

nails it. The adjustment to the vault apparently works like magic.

is not right with the release switches and the height of the table is being affected as well. Mark Cook has brought out a mechanic to help with the adjustment and David and Bryan take one more look to make sure it's acceptable. Yep!

for the vault.

Bama needs to attack the vault like they did last week at Georgia to get that team score up for RQS calculations this week.

hop back on her landing of the double layout. The rest of the routine was terrific, including the Markelov release.

Dana Pierce just exhibited one whale of a bars routine, hitting her handstands, including the transition to the low bar and sticking her back tuck off the high bar. They will not show the exhibition scores! Drat.

and receives a 9.725. Mari Bayer completed a super routine but the judges may say otherwise. She stuck the double tuck dismount out of a full turn and completed another beautiful pike Jaeger release. She receives a 9.800.

Arkansas's Rachel Barnett fell on her front pike vault (in the sixth position) so the Razorbacks will have to count the 9.625 score in their team total.

front, having to take a step and then a hop back on the landing. Cortez of Arkansas received a 9.725 for her Yurchenko 1/1.

went in very flat and had no amplitude, hence the lower score.

Comeaux receives a 9.825 for her bars routine. Shannon Hrozek had difficulty on her blind 1/2 change but continued the routine without a major break in her rhythm and completed the Gienger release and a double tuck dismount, one step (really went for that stick). She receives a 9.60 as a result. We'll look at this one closely on the replay.

Miles receives a 9.775. A little low in our opinion.

Brittany Comeaux just completed a super set as well, nice handstands this week, including the transition to the low bar and a stuck double front!

with a 1/2 on 1/2 off tuck, stuck the landing.

Ashley is through her Shaposhnikova and Hindorff and lands the double layout with super distance, one step back to check.

Arkansas is dressed in white with a red outline of a Razorback on the bodice and electric red on the upper shoulders and arms.

Bama is dressed in the deep burgundy and silver wave stripe outfit that has contrasting velveteen (lower torso and diagonal bodice) with a sheer crimson netting on the upper bodice and arms, silver chevron cuffs also in contrast near the wrist area.

WHOOOOOOO! PIG SOOOOOEEE! Ready to go on bars for the 3 minute touch is the Tide and on vault the Razorbacks.

face the crowd as the song is played. The national anthem is now being presented by the local ROTC and sung by an Arkansas male student.

is played and the Arkansas gals come out with a crown of leaves on their head, reminiscent of the Olympians of old.

Three of tonight's judges, to the best of our recall, have never judged Alabama's team, so this will be interesting to see how the scoring unfolds. Bama's fans are here behind us immediately and are vocal in their support of the Tide.

tonight. Filetti will rest on the beam and floor and Hrozek will rest on the floor for tonight.

Vault: Drew, McLeod, Machnik, Cortez, Loveless, Leigh
Bars: McQuillin, Cortez, Drew, Hardman, Leigh, Peacock
Beam: McQuillin, Cortez, Peacock, Drew, McLeod, Hardman
Floor: Barnett, Peacock, McQuillin, Cortez, Machnik, Hardman

and the line-up at this time is as follows:

Bars: Miles, Comeaux, Hrozek, Filetti, Bayer, Humphrey
Vault: Comeaux, Filetti, Humphrey, Hrozek, Brion, Miles
Floor: Pierce, Bayer, Rightley, Humphrey, Brion, Miles
Beam: Delahoussaye, Reeser, Hrozek, Bayer, Miles, Humphrey

will be:

Vault: Sibby Lane and Portia Bodenheimer
Bars: Ray Lyons and Barbara Cutillo
Beam: Barbara Cutillo and Sibby Lane
Floor: Portia Bodenheimer and Ray Lyons

a distinct smell of barbecue from our left. That's what we hope our Tide will do tonight out on the gym floor.

Again, lots of sports activities are going on here tonight and over the weekend, including SEC track and field competitions and they're making a movie here as well, with lots of students performing as extras, so our total crowd tonight is not expected to be as large as we had initially hoped. Arkansas has done a great job over the past three years of attracting the fans despite being a fledgling program.

arrived and they get hearty applause for their efforts.

dismount with incredible height on our right. Shannon throws one more layout and then the team departs as their fans send them off with a hearty "Roll Tide Roll Tide", led by RaraRuss.

including track and field competition and baseball. Alabama's men's and women's track teams are here as well.

Michelle Reeser has now returned to her flight series of the bhs-layout-Korbut.

Nice flight series from Shannon Hrozek (bhs-layout-bhs).

Dismounts are looking sharp as well (double twist from Filetti) but the double tuck from Ashley just then was not to her liking so she'll do another one, as will Terin (unintended landing on the buttocks that time).

all the gals are getting extra amplitude on their leaps, including Dana Filetti (straddle-straddle-wolf).

seeing some of her best leaps ever, including the switch leap to straddle to wolf.

Ashley is adjusting her power to fit the beam spring before Terin takes a whirl with her triple mount (perfect).

Bama is now moving to the balance beam for their final long warm-up.

Michelle Reeser is in the line-up for beam at this time, in the second position. Everybody is warming up who could potentially be inserted, including Filetti, Hrozek, Reeser, Bayer, Delahoussaye, Miles, Humphrey.

and Alexis Brion has the highest tuck double back! She will add that in tonight for her third pass.

but are not expected to compete on this event tonight, including Dana Filetti and Michelle Reeser. That could change quickly of course.

Dana Pierce is looking really sharp with her double twist to punch front final pass in long warm-ups.

and another one right after from Dana Pierce.

Terin Humphrey is set to go on floor tonight depending upon how she warms up. Her routine will include a triple twist, a pike full-in and a 1 1/2 to end.

home of the Razorbacks, where tonight it's Alabama versus Arkansas in the final SEC dual meet for the Tide.

We are watching long warm-ups and Bama has moved smoothly through the bars, vault and are now going through their routines on the floor exercise.

Several Bama parents are sitting directly behind us, including Shannon Hrozek's mother, David Patterson's parents, and Lisa and Steve Humphrey from Union, Missouri.