Floor Exercise      49.125

9.900      Brittany Magee (Freshman) nailed all of her tumbling passes and dance elements.  Opened with the ½ in ½ out (E), second pass of a whip, whip, back handspring to huge double pike, finished with a front through to a double full (D).  Switch leap to split full jump combination, cat leap full, and a double turn were some additional dance highlights.

9.850         Ashley Miles (Senior) slightly over-rotated the double layout (leg lift) to open but nailed the front to front full to front punch layout, finished with a double pike, a little low on the landing.  Dance this week was more expressive and confident.

9.825         Melanie Banville (Freshman) threw the pike full in to open (a little low and forward on the landing), a 2 ½ twist to punch front (very nice), and finished with a double pike (also landed with chest down, step forward on the landing required to control), perfect ending with the music and her final arm gesture to the judge on her left.  You can see her confidence already growing with this routine.

9.775         Ashley O'Neal (Freshman) started the rotation off with a running tuck to round off back handspring to double tuck as her opening pass, followed by a super high and confident double pike, finished with a front to front full to front punch layout.  Excellent debut, sold the routine very well with her dance and expression.

9.775         Cassie Martin (Freshman) landed the double front Arabian to open, small step back to control, followed by a perfect front handspring to front layout to front full (landing was exceptional, form was straight with legs extended and together throughout all three elements); finished with a technically perfect double twist.  This week her dance elements were more polished and there were no obvious gaps in the flow of choreography.  We felt this routine was underscored by at least .50.

8.500     Terin Humphrey (Sophomore) started off confidently with a double pike but fell on the punch front element immediately following her 2 ½ twist and also was unable to stand up the 2 ½ twist after the 1 ½ to close out.  Endurance may still be a problem for her this early in the season and she may need to reduce the difficulty level on one of her passes to allow for stamina at the end to be maintained.  Beautiful dance and leaps as usual.

Vault      49.200

9.925         Ashley Miles took one step back on the landing of the Yurchenko 1/1 but was rewarded for her amazing power and height/body control in the air.

9.850         Ashley O'Neal has improved her form and control of the Pike ½ twist in just a few weeks and was also rewarded on this date for awesome height gained and a chest high landing, one small step back only.

9.825         Brittany Magee had great height, leg extension and toe point throughout the Yurchenko 1/1 and was deducted for a little pike down, one small step to check her balance as well. 

9.800         Melanie Banville is the lead-off on vault this year and landed the Yurchenko 1/1 with a foot check almost in place.  Form has improved in the past two weeks.  Expect her to upgrade to the 1 ½ soon.

9.800         Kaitlin White (Sophomore) also had a very solid Yurchenko 1/1, one step on her landing, much better position in the air compared to last week and almost no pike down this week.

9.725         Dana Filetti (Senior) reentered the vault line-up this week with the Hristakieva, one of her most confident vaults (Yurchenko ½ off front layout).  She landed this one a little stiff-kneed but has much better potential to score in the 9.90 range or higher with this vault versus the Luconi of past seasons.

Uneven Bars         49.175

9.900         Terin Humphrey recovered beautifully from the problems encountered on the floor to hit her full turn to Geinger release (almost perfectly laid out body position) and stuck the double layout.  Huge smile as she saluted the judges and greeted her teammates afterwards.

9.850         Melanie Banville has mastered the straddle release back to handstand on the low bar in just a few weeks as her new, more comfortable transition move.  She threw a toe-on toe-off to full turn to Tkatchev and finished with a stuck double layout.  Very impressive debut on this event.

9.850         Kaitlin White was the WVUA Radio Crew's "Go To Gymnast" for week one and she was understandably given the lead-off position on this event for week two.  She banked her best routine on bars in her young history at Alabama, hitting her handstands, the full turn to Geinger release to pak Salto combination and finished with a terrific full turn to stuck double tuck, chest high landing.  There were a lot of high fives along our press row in the rafters following this routine.

9.800         Courtney Priess (Freshman) hit the toe-on toe-off to full turn to Tkatchev and just slightly missed sticking the awesome Arabian double front dismount, having only a minor foot shift to balance the landing.  We thought this routine should have scored  higher.

9.775         Dana Filetti showed her senior spunk and self-discipline when she encountered a problem on the straddle uprise to handstand by improvising a smooth giant to half turn before kipping back to handstand and proceeding with the full turn to Geinger release.  The best part of this routine was the perfect giant to handstand ½ turn on top of the high bar before she whipped the double front dismount, sticking the landing.  More high-fives ensued.

9.250         Cassie Martin was enroute to a high-scoring performance, having nailed the toe-on toe-off to Tkatchev to pak Salto combination.  She had to jump off near the end when she broke at the hips on her straddle to handstand out of a front giant.  But she too stuck the dismount (double tuck).  She is so close to hitting this routine.

Balance Beam      48.650

9.900         Cassie Martin redeemed herself magnificently on the beam by completing all elements without balance checks this week, and the judges rewarded her for her difficult leap combinations and the smooth balletic style of her choreography.  Highlights included a ring leap, a front aerial, a back handspring to layout step-out, a switch leap to double stag jump (head back) and a back handspring to gainer full twist off the side, stuck landing.

9.775         Brittany Magee once again had great body lines and toe-point/extension throughout her routine.  She encountered some balance checks on the one-handed back handspring to layout step-out series and had to take a step forward on the landing of her double tuck dismount.  Routine also included a front aerial, a punch front and a switch leap to wolf jump (beautiful height and form).

9.750         Ashley O'Neal was excited to debut her beam routine but had a few balance checks that kept her score a little lower than she wanted.  She threw a back handspring layout step-out, a switch leap to straddle-straddle combination, a punch front (little slide of one foot forward on landing) and the best part of her routine was the last: double front dismount, stuck.  It was great to see how excited her teammates were for her successful effort as they engulfed her with hugs.

9.700         Terin Humphrey had trouble on her signature mount (triple turn in the lunge position) and completed only two revolutions.  She completed the rest of her skills without significant errors or balance checks, including the full twisting back handspring to layout step-out, the punch front (needed a little more amplitude) and the switch leap to ¾ twisting back handspring to split handstand.  Dismounted with a gainer full twist off the side of the beam.  Score may have been lower due to smooth connections between certain elements being in question by one judge in particular (conference ensued for about two minutes).

9.525         Mari-Christine Bayer (Senior) scored higher as the lead-off beam worker this week compared to her Super Six Challenge performance but she actually encountered more balance checks and problems this week with her routine.   She bailed on the front aerial and had to repeat this element and then bailed on her layout step-out (third element of the flight series).  Nice switch leap ½ turn and a switch leap to straddle side jump combination but she checked the landing of the double stag leap as well, hence the lower score.  Mari had tweaked her knee earlier this week in practice but still wanted to perform.  The final performance likely indicated some sensitivity was still present in this area.

8.550      Melanie Banville was struggling from the beginning of this routine and appeared tentative with the straddle to straddle full combination, coming off the beam with the second element.  Nice flight series (back handspring to layout step-out) but a balance check again on the switch ¾ twisting straddle leap.  She missed one of her feet on the end of the beam as she was going off with the double pike, which took away her amplitude and resulted in a chest/face planting on landing.  Like Terin, Melanie may need to reduce some of the difficulty in this routine until she can gain enough successful reps that will build her confidence.  It will be an exciting moment when she hits the entire routine.

Ashley Miles	Ashley O'Neal
Brittany Magee	Cassie Martin
Courtney Priess	Dana Filetti
Dana Pierce	Erin Rightley
Kaitlin White	Mari-Christine Bayer
Melanie Banville	Terin Humphrey