The first annual "Think Pink - Wear Pink" Gymnastics Meet between the Tide and Tigers was a rousing success this past Friday Night at Coleman Coliseum, bringing 13,299 fans into the arena for a great competition and a greater cause.  Alabama once again was victorious over their cross-state rival, finishing with a 196.900 team score enroute to season-high totals on the vault (49.475) and uneven bars (49.275).  Bama moved back into the Top 5 this week (currently #4 nationally) and prepares to clash with the Kentucky Wildcats on February 11th.  Kentucky's second-year head coach, Mo Muhammed, is already pumping up his team and fan base for an upset of the Crimson Tide, citing the close calls from 2003 and 2001 as evidence that Bama could be ripe for defeat.   You can bet that Alabama's coaches have been preparing their team just as hard this week in practice and will once again have them ready to perform for the home crowd.  But for now, let's review some of the highlights from this past weekend's meet.

Vault

Ashley Miles (10.00) and Shannon Hrozek (9.925) both competed the Yurchenko 1/1 (full twist off) and garnered the higher scores by sticking their landings chest high and by maintaining excellent form and extension throughout.  Ashley's superior amplitude during flight was rewarded accordingly. Alexis Brion matched Shannon's score with a front pike ½ twist and arguably should have been rewarded a little more for the awesome amplitude, tight form and stuck landing she achieved with this vault. This was probably one of the 2-3 best vaults Alexis has ever competed and a 10 would not have been out of line.  Friday night, freshman Terin Humphrey (9.825) was the first Alabama gymnast to compete the very difficult Yurchenko ½ on ½ off pike front (½ out), which she competed as an international elite gymnast for the USA National Team for several years before upgrading to the DTY (double-twisting Yurchenko).  Her first time out was solid, marred only by a small hop on the landing. Terin achieved good amplitude and her control of this vault from start to finish was pretty impressive.  Dana Filetti (9.800) threw another confident Yurchenko full twist on - back pike off with only one step back on the landing.  She needs a little more amplitude and a stuck landing to hit 9.85 and 9.90 consistently. Brittany Comeaux (9.775) continues to compete the Yurchenko ½ on - front tuck - ½ tuck off with more confidence each week and we thought this vault was superior to her effort last week that ironically garnered a higher score.  Team Total: 49.475

Meanwhile, on the uneven bars for the Tigers, the best routines were turned in by freshman, Julie Dwyer (9.775 for a full turn to Tkatchev, full turn to double tuck dismount) and junior Danielle Holtz (9.750, no major release move but she dismounted with a rare double-twisting flyaway).  Both gymnasts rotate/swing the bars with confidence.  Deductions likely came for missing handstand positions during uprises and transitions to the low bar respectively. Team Total: 48.575

Uneven Bars 

Shannon Hrozek (9.900) redeemed herself in magnificent style this week on the bars after suffering her first fall in collegiate competition history last week on the landing of her new E-level dismount, which Coach David Patterson identified as an Arabian.  He noted that this dismount is similar yet also different from the E-level skill (double front) that Dana F. and Brittany perform in that the Arabian has a ½ turn out of a giant before Shannon turns her body in the opposite direction and completes two front saltos before landing.  The "plain" double front consists of two saltos released straight back out of a giant front.  This week Shannon not only nailed the new dismount but achieved excellent form and distance from the high bar during flight.  Terin Humphrey (9.900) had a perfect routine going until she hopped back on the landing of her double layout.  She mounted this week from the high bar and completed a beautiful stalder before throwing a toe-on ½ turn to Khorkina (Markelov) release.  Mari Bayer (9.850) attacked her bars routine for the third straight week and hopes to upgrade her full turn to double tuck dismount to a double layout in the next week or so.  She would have scored higher but one of her cast to handstands on the high bar went just a tad over vertical, resulting in at least a .05 deduction.  Ashley Miles' routine (9.825) was first up and we saw only the one foot forward on the dismount as an obvious deduction.  The Shaposhnikova transition skill and Hindorff release move off the high bar, again, had great amplitude and form this week.   A strong showing from Dana Pierce (9.800) was highlighted by two front giants and a Tkatchev release and a perfect handstand transition to the low bar.  The reverse tuck off the high bar had one step on the landing.  Dana Filetti (9.775) would have scored higher except for the close grasp on her toe-on straddle release to the high bar that slowed her rhythm just a bit.  She also had cowboy form on the double front dismount saltos and took a step on the landing, giving the judges additional room to deduct.

Auburn struggled on the vault and had to count one of two falls (9.025 from Karmen Pinckney ).  The usually solid senior, Kayce Stein (front pike ½ twist), crashed her vault after going in flat and appearing to twist the pike too early to compensate, resulting in a 8.975 score that was dropped.  Julie Dwyer was impressive with a Hristakieva, marred mainly by a hop forward on the landing; she had pretty good control of this vault and achieved nice distance from the vault table.  Team Total: 47.875

Balance Beam

Terin Humphrey (9.900) was the stand-out once again this week on the balance beam for the Tide, completing her flight series (Kotchetkova-bhs-layout) and the switch leap to ¾ twisting back handspring to a handstand in the split position (Omeliantchik), dismounting with a round-off to back handspring to double tuck, stuck.  Mari Bayer (9.800) competed a confident routine as well but lost a little of her bonus when she executed the switch leap to straddle and left out the third element (wolf jump).  To boost her score past 9.90, she will add back the Korbut (backward split dive down onto the beam) after her front aerial to back handspring to get the full bonus on this combination flight series.  Ashley Miles (9.725) by far had her best beam performance of the 2005 season.   She had just a small balance check on her mount (round-off layout-step-out) and then executed a terrific switch leap to switch side leap combination.  Unfortunately, a "reset" deduction occurred during her prep for the gainer back handspring to layout series when she literally had to improvise a dance move before going into the flight series proper.  A camera flash had gone off in the audience to her immediate right just before this sequence and this may have contributed to her distraction. The emcee was alerted by a team representative and again had to remind the audience to not photograph with the flash on or risk removal from the arena.  Ashley finished the routine with a terrific round-off back handspring to double tuck, achieving a stuck landing (chest a little low and bent forward).  Rachael Delahoussaye (9.700) executed the wolf full with perfect toe point, amplitude and landing but suffered a deduction when she had a balance check on her layout (right foot lifted but quickly returned to the beam in recovery).   Dana Filetti (9.675) had a better routine than the score indicates (tuck full, handstand to immediate layout, back handspring to Korbut, sheep jump, double twist dismount, one step on the landing).  The judges may have deducted her for one or two "set up" points in the routine, which in their eyes may have interfered too much with the flow and rhythm of her elements. Shannon Hrozek (9.625) was obviously deducted on the landing of her third element during the flight series (bhs-layout-layout), when she bent her right shoulder and lifted one foot to balance her landing.  Another deduction likely came on the hitch kick to sheep jump (slight check on the landing) as well as on the double twist dismount (took a step and then walked out a little further after initially appearing to have controlled her momentum). Team Total: 48.800

 Auburn improved their team score considerably on the floor exercise , resulting in 9.825 scores from Rachael Tarantino (fantastic flexibility on the straddle jump combinations; double pike to open, double tuck to close, very confident presentation overall), Kayce Stein (2 ½ twist to open, double tuck to close) and Karmen Pinckney (double pike to open, front-front full-front pike to close; also had the Tiger's best eye contact and presentation to the crowd).  Julie Dwyer (9.750) had the most sophisticated combination of music, tumbling and dance but was deducted for going out of bounds on her final pass (opened with a nice 2 ½ to punch front tuck).

Floor Exercise 

Shannon Hrozek (9.900) has become the Tide's lead-off competitor on the vault and floor for 2005 and showed why once again as she opened her routine with a huge double pike, followed by a strong front-front full-front pike (added difficulty this week), and ended with a high and well-executed double tuck.  Her straddle full to wolf full combination had very nice amplitude, extension and toe point as well.  For the second week, Erin Rightley (9.850) competed a double pike (incredible height and form on this element) for her opening tumbling pass and was deducted a bit for a balance check on the landing (seemed to jam the left leg a little but recovered quickly).  Her second pass is the front through to a Rudi (1 ½ twist) and she finished with a front-front full-front pike, landed very well.  She will soon add the layout-step-out at the end of the Rudi to garner even more bonus in this routine.  Mari Bayer (9.90) had another great outing, highlighted by expressive dance elements and strong tumbling (double pike, front-front full-front tuck, double twist) but Dana Filetti (8.825) experienced trouble early on with the double front Arabian this week (seemed to land it high enough but appeared also to have under-rotated it, resulting in a fall back onto her hands).  She was recovering nicely in the subsequent dance but then seemed to lose her energy after stumbling a bit out of her second pass (whip ½ to front full).  The third pass was also rather lackluster (front full to front layout) and the final score seemed to reflect the judges' disappointment as much as Dana's.  Alexis Brion was gunning for a huge score with her super opening passes (whip to back handspring to double pike and a whip ½ to front full to front tuck) but slipped on the final element of her third tumbling pass (front handspring-front layout-front tuck) and  had to stumble back two steps to maintain her balance.  Ashley Miles used this as extra incentive to pull of another terrific floor set (9.950), opening with a very strong double layout, second pass of a front-front full-front layout and ending with a terrific double pike.   We've run out of words to describe Ashley's floor routine, so let the score tell the tale.  Team Total: 49.350 Final Team Total: 196.900.

Finishing up on the balance beam, Auburn showcased several solid routines that will bode well for them as they move towards post-season competition. Kayce Stein (9.825) was very confident in executing all of her elements, highlighted by the flight series (bhs-bhs-layout) and the double twist dismount (stuck landing).  Rachael Tarantino (9.850) showed off her terrific flexibility on the straddle jumps and executed a punch front like a walk in the park.  Julie Dwyer had the most fluid and confident routine (bhs-layout-layout, punch front, double twist dismount) and was rewarded accordingly with a 9.90, tying her with the Tide's Terin Humphrey .  Team Total: 48.875.  Final Team Total: 194.350

More Audio  

• All Around
  • Shannon Hrozek, 39.350
  • Ashley Miles, 39.500,
    • pre-meet
    • post-meet
• Meet the Gymnast:
  • Kaitlin White,
• Interviews
  • Sarah Patterson
    • Pre-meet:
    • Post-meet: