here and head back out into the snow. We hope to see all Tide fans at the Pink Meet on Friday, January 20th. Get ready to cheer for some awesome gymnastics next week and perhaps welcome the #1 team home for their debut. Goodnight from State College, Pennsylvania, where Bama wins again, now 7-0 on the 2006 season.

mentioned would include Kaitlin White's opening routine on the bars, a 9.850 and Ashley O'Neal's booming vault, which garnered a 9.850 as well. Dana Filetti showed her senior discipline by recycling her bars routine at a key point to a 9.775, which was needed for the total after Cassie hit a rough spot near the end of her routine. Mari Bayer showed fortitude by going on the beam again despite earlier tweaking of the knee in practice. So, many good clutch performances and sharing of the team work on this date.

Alabama's Ashley Miles wins the vault (9.925), Terin wins the uneven bars (9.90), Cassie Martin wins the balance beam (9.90) and Brittany Magee wins the floor with a 9.90. Roll Tide!

Alabama 196.150
PSU 194.875
Arizona 194.350

with WVUA crew, Melanie did indeed miss her foot on the end of the beam during her dismount and amazingly had enough push to pull it up and back or it could have been a worse landing for her. Coach feels she will definitely learn from this. Her final score is a 8.550.

From what we have been told, this is the highest of the weekend to date, including UGA's home score of 195.825, so the Tide may go into this next week as #1.

from the beginning on her straddle to straddle full jump combination, falling on the second element. She hits the rest of her elements until the dismount of a double pike, landing too low and forward on her knees. She was more embarrassed than anything but the coaches check her out to make sure nothing serious occurred in the way of an injury. She was rather tentative going into the opening straddle, perhaps anticipating the straddle full too early, and it got her. The dismount was a puzzle, she appeared to be off the round off and may have missed one of her feet on the landing of the round-off, throwing her momentum off considerably. We will check the video for the post-meet commentary.

Brittany Magee is through her flight series of the one-handed back handspring to layout-stepout; nice aerial front walk over and a super punch front; nice switch leap to wolf and the double tuck dismount, again a step forward on the landing towards the beam, otherwise another fantastic routine. Magee works up on her toes, so light on her feet on all of the leaps.

Terin Humphrey is next. She throws only two revolutions of the Humphrey and the Kotchetkova to back handspring to layout step-out, punch front, the Omeliantchik (3/4 twisting back handspring to split position) and sticks her dismount of the gainer full twist.

layout-stepout, nails the dismount of a back handspring to gainer full twist! More engulfing by her teammates ensues.

Ashley O'Neal just rocked her routine, including the awesome E dismount, a double front! Punch front and a back handspring to layout step-out were showcased, along with a switch leap to straddle-straddle combination for a 9.750. Deductions were for balance checks, but she gets our "Go to Gymnast" award for this week.

before throwing the front aerial to back handspring (no layout). Nice switch leap 1/2 turn but again tentative on the other elements, including the switch leap to side straddle jump. This routine will likely be heavily deducted even more than last week's outing.

event and a running score of 145.90. Arizona has a running total of 145.025.

as the team prepares to move to the balance beam in the final rotation, garnering a big smile from her. She truly had a gorgeous routine going on the bars before the jump off and hopefully third time will be the charm next week against the Gators.

Arizona picked it up on vault, ending with a 48.950. Alexis Greene had a 9.875.

how to recover mid-routine for a 9.775. And Terin comes back from her problems on the floor to hit her routine with gorgeous toe point and extension, stuck the dismount this week too for a 9.90.

Filetti is now up for the Tide and has just a little trouble on the full pirouette and has to do another giant half to kip handstand back up before another full turn to Geinger and she sticks the double front Arabian!!! Her teammates engulf her in relief.

Priess hits her routine, throwing the full turn to Tkatchev, the toe-on toe-off to Arabian double front dismount, nailed the landing!

Toe-on toe-off to full turn to Tkatchev release to straddle back to handstand on the low bar, finishing with a stuck double layout dismount. She receives a 9.85.

could not quite muscle it up to handstand position and had to drop off. She nails the dismount and the rest of the routine but receives a 9.250.

Freshman Cassie Martin is up next for the Tide.

throw the full turn to double tuck, stuck the dismount! She is embraced by her teammates, who know how hard she has worked in the off-season to get into the line-up. RTR.

the vault. Bama will start with Kaitlin White.

Looking good! Terin has both release moves in her routine but will only throw the Geinger tonight. Will debut the harder routine next week against the Gators.

be on the uneven bars tonight. Kaitlin White just had a terrific 3 minute touch on the bars and is ready to step in if the others are not ready.

scores, as the judges appear to be a little loose on this event tonight compared to floor and vault. One judge on floor is scoring very tight.

Greene. They finish with a 48.600 and a running total of 95.95. PSU has a running total of 97.675.

for the Lions and ends with a double layout, step back on the landing.

Perret has fallen twice on bars now for PSU and finishes up with a double layout, step forward. Pirkl has a 9.825 on bars and Lisa Clark a 9.725 despite hitting the bars on her Tkatchev release (ugh, that hurt).

Miles follows right behind with a super 1/1 and one step back, awesome height and form as usual. She receives a 9.925.

Super height and one step back on the landing. She gets better each week, this time garnering a 9.85.

She vaults a strong Yurchenko 1/1, one step on the landing for a 9.80.

otherwise a strong outing.

(scoot in place). She receives a 9.800.

on vault.

Hristakieva in her club elite days. Tonight she will return to the Hristakieva, first time back in the vault line-up since last year.

Arizona had trouble on beam, coming in at 47.350.

pass of a double pike, followed by front handspring to two front layouts (very nice). She finishes with a double twist, another nice landing. Way to go senior!

punch layout and finishes with a strong double pike. She lifted her leg again on the first pass just a bit this week. She receives a 9.85.

She follows with a beautiful 2 1/2 twist to punch front. She finishes with a double pike, a little low but her timing on the landing was right in time with the music so she saluted the judge with her final arm move. She receives a 9.825.

Perfect opening 1/2 in 1/2 out. Gorgeous whip-whip to back pike (perfect landing again) and she finishes with a D pass, a front through to a double full, another fantastic landing. Whoosh! That's the way to bring it home!

dismount as her mount.

Terin hits her opening pass of the double pike but sits down the punch front out of her 2 1/2 twist (second pass) so this will be a major deduction. She finishes with a 1 1/2 to a 2 1/2 and falls on this last pass as well. Not a good outing for our gal but hopefully she'll be able to recover for the next events. Sarah is talking with her to see where the timing was off.

Nails the double front Arabian and the front handspring-front punch layout to front full. Dance is more flowing this week at key points and she finishes with another strong double twist. Terrific! Let's keep it going Bama.

a huge double pike, awesome height and landing! She ends with a front-front full-front punch layout. Awesome first time on the floor for the Georgia native.

and the Wildcats.

Bama is in the burgundy velveteen and silver shiny burgundy contrast from 2004 nationals. Penn State is in blue and white and Arizona is in a silver leo with contrasting blue-sequined upper shoulders and red piping trim on the v-neck back and front square-neck bodice.

Alabama will once again need their seniors to lead and their freshmen to hit on all four events to secure the victory tonight. On the floor, this means standing up the E-tumbling passes and staying in bounds. On vault, big pushes off the table and complete twisting of the Yurchenkos and stuck landings. On the bars, other than hitting their major release moves, we'll need straight line handstand positions and the gals to spot their landings on the dismounts for optimal scoring. The gals will need to be aggressive and confident on the beam like last week but keep the balance checks to a minimum.

Rachael Delahoussaye will not be competing on the beam as she continues to recover from a stress fracture in the arm.

Mari Bayer tweaked her knee this past week in practice but seems to be fine, as she practiced beam and floor tonight in long warm-ups. The coaches may hold her out just as a precaution.

Penn State is without Kristal Uzelac, who has retired from gymnastics as of December. Genevieve Shingle is also out for the Lions after going through off-season surgery prior to Christmas.

2002 National Championship team, is here with her family to watch the 2006 Tide. Krista is from Maryland, which has given Bama several great gymnasts over the years, including new Tider Cassie Martin and former great Raegan Tomasek (while she trained at Hill's Angels, though from New York originally).

Roll Tide Roll! and the coaches are going over their final line-ups near the beam. From warm-ups tonight, Bama looked best on bars, beam, floor and vault in that order. Timing on the vault for several gals took awhile to perfect and this may pose a problem during the meet.

Courtney Priess, Cassie Martin, Ashley O'Neal, Terin Humphrey, Brittany Magee and Melanie Banville. Mari Bayer will probably be held out after tweaking her knee earlier this week but she was practicing beam and going through dance moves on the floor, so she has range of motion. However, the coaches feel confident with the freshmen and may want to be cautious and hold her out until next week. Ashley Miles is enjoying the break from the all around and is expected to be back on all four events next week as well. Bama has lots of depth on this event, so now is the time to use it.

all the support she needs tonight. Filetti will be on vault and uneven bars for the Tide tonight.

dismount off the beam, stuck it ice cold, which is what the weather is like outside here right now. We had snow most of today but the roads up here are in good condition.

and Melanie just threw a tough-looking double pike dismount. By the way, her new transition move on the bars in long warm-ups looked first rate (straddle release to handstand).

Cassie, Brittany, and Erin warming up.

indeed stay on the balance beam to start and will finish on the uneven bars, so it's the Tide only that decided to switch the line-up.

By the way, we have tons of fans up here, including several families from this area and north to us. From Indiana, Danny and Lisa Pierce are here; from Maryland, the Martin family and Cassie's boyfriend. From Ontario, the Banvilles, including sister and her boyfriend. Helen O'Neal is also here and will see her daughter on vault and floor tonight and Mel and Linda Priess are also here. Sarah's sister and college coach are here as well.

she will be exhibiting or is ready to show her marvelous routine.

We also see Courtney Priess, Dana Filetti, Ashley Miles, Cassie Martin, Kaitlin White, Cassie Martin, and Amanda Montgomery.

Dana Pierce is working the floor exercise since no other team has need of this event in rotation #3. Mari Bayer is running through her dance moves like a shadow. Mari was working on the beam earlier and is expected to go despite a slight knee strain earlier this week during practice.

baby! Banville is getting great height on her Yurchenko 1/1 as is Ashley O'Neal on the pike 1/2 twist.

this event. Kaitlin White, Filetti, O'Neal, Magee, Banville, Ford, Miles will anchor this event tonight. Terin Humphrey is expected back on this event by pink night.

Brittany Magee just nailed that 1/2 in 1/2 out opening pass but Cassie is over-rotating the double front Arabian just a little too much but Bryan is helping her adjust. The Tide is looking good, especially Terin Humphrey on her 2 1/2 to punch front. She is also planning to throw the 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 as her final pass.

with floor exercise. The rotation practice order shows Terin Humphrey will start, followed by Cassie Martin, Ashley O'Neal (!), Brittany Magee, Melanie Banville and Ashley Miles. That's six gymnasts with E-opening tumbling passes, as Melanie Banville is throwing the pike full-in to open tonight. Erin Rightley is in the seventh position.

and the site of tonight's gymnastics tri-meet between the Alabama Crimson Tide, the Arizona Wildcats and the Lions.

Alabama has started long warm-ups on the floor exercise, where apparently they have opted to start the meet since the Lions will have the Olympic rotation order as the host team (vault to start). Arizona has opted to start on the uneven bars in lieu of the beam, where ordinarily they would have begun the meet as the second rated team behind Alabama (which would have ordinarily started on uneven bars).