Post Meet Commentary: Alabama v Stanford (March 10, 2006)

Read all about it! Bama shoos Cardinal back to The Farm with a final tally of 196.250 to 195.850. Bama is now 13-1 and will be heading into their final regular season showdown against the Auburn Tigers on March 17th at Coleman Coliseum. It's Senior Night, so let's all be there to support our five fantastic gals: Rachael, Dana P., Ashley, Mari-Christine and Dana F. But for now, here are some highlights from the Tide's routines last week...

			Amanda, Kaitlin, and Ashley M Ashley Ford and Courtney Priess Ashley Miles Ashley O'Neal Brittany Magee Cassie, Bianca, and Brittany Cassie Martin Courtney Priess Dana Filetti Dana Pierce Erin Rightley Floor Champs Kaitlin White Mari, Ashley O, and Rachael Mari-Christine Bayer Melanie Banville Melanie and Dana F Rachael Delahoussaye Terin Humphrey
Gymnast	Vault Highlights	Score
Ashley Miles Sr	Yurchenko 1/1 Big vault, almost stuck it but small hop on landing cost her.	9.925
Brittany Magee Fr	Yurchenko 1/1 Excellent height, form and extension on the twist; hop on landing cost her the big score as well.	9.850
Kaitlin White So	Yurchenko 1/1 Strong push off the vault table, confident twist and controlled landing, a little pike coming down, step as well.	9.825
Melanie Banville Fr	Yurchenko 1/1 One of the better looking vaults from her this year.  Judges may want to see a little more height and distance.	9.800
Terin Humphrey So	Yurchenko 1/1 This vault started off the Tide’s rotation and looked controlled and powerful from start to finish, but another hop on the dismount gave the judges too much room to deduct.	9.750
Dana Filetti Sr	Hristakieva She appeared to have problems with placement of her hands on the vault table and she bailed with a Yurchenko layout only; smart move on Dana’s part to avoid a scary landing.	9.150
Cassie Martin (Exh) Fr	Yurchenko ½ on – Front pike off Excellent rendering of this vault, which she learned in the off-season.  Twisting in the air and landing were well-controlled but she was off center a bit.  Big smile at the end.	Did not see score
Total		49.150
Gymnast	Uneven Bars	Score
Terin Humphrey So	Shuffle on the double layout dismount, nice Gienger release (no Khorkina this week); beautiful pirouetting as usual.	9.850
Melanie Banville Fr	We love the way she executes and sticks the double layout dismount.  Transition to the low bar (straddle back to handstand) was not vertical but she hit the toe-shoot release back to the high bar without losing any of her swing rhythm.  Big toe-on toe-off to full turn to Tkatchev release looked confident as well.	9.850
Ashley Miles Sr	Awesome routine, big Shaposhnikova, Hindorff and a stuck double layout dismount.	9.850
Dana Filetti Sr	Jam landing of the double front dismount cost her at least two tenths; just slightly missed perfect vertical position on about two of her handstands as well.	9.725
Courtney Priess  Fr	Slightly past vertical on her first giant uprise to handstand but the rest of the routine was terrific until she bounded forward on the landing of the Arabian double front dismount.  This routine is so close to scoring big if she can just pull all of the elements together on the same night.  She showed extra effort to hit perfect vertical positions on the handstand uprises and this week was successful with the transition to the low bar (straddle back to handstand).	9.675
Cassie Martin Fr	Missed her Tkatchev release this week but finished well, slightest step on the landing of the double tuck out of a full turn.	9.150
Brittany Magee (Exh) Fr	The coaches had pencilled her in to compete this routine because of her big skills and progress in the practice gym but 3-minute touch warm-ups were not looking good.  So Brittany exhibited and showed clearly why the coaches are high on this routine: giant ½ to giant 1/1, another ½ turn on top of the high bar to pak Salto, toe-shoot release to the high bar, giant 1/1 to giant  to a tuck full in dismount, one step on the landing, a little sluggish with her execution of this element as well.  More reps should yield even better results.	9.750
Mari-Christine Bayer (Exh) Sr	Solid routine, hit the pike Jaeger release, perfect handstand transition move to the low bar, stuck the double tuck dismount out of a full turn.	9.725
Total		48.950
Gymnast	Balance Beam Highlights	Score
Terin Humphrey So	Excellent effort on the flight series (Kotchetkova, bhs, layout step-out), the punch front, switch leap to wolf; rushed the Omeliantchik just a bit; hop on the landing of the 1 ½ twist out of a round off.	9.825
Erin Rightley Jr	A noticeable wobble on the front aerial but recovered nicely to hit the rest of her elements and stuck the bhs to gainer full twist dismount.	9.775
Ashley O'Neal Fr	Slightest of shoulder shifts on the landing of her second element of the flight series (layout step-out), step forward on the double front dismount.  A little more confidence and amplitude needed on the leap series.	9.750
Brittany Magee Fr	Uncharacteristic balance checks occurred on the front aerial and the full turn with leg horizontal (shoulder dropped on the right a little as she completed the move).  Rest of the routine was perfection: switch leap to wolf; punch front; round off to a stuck double tuck landing.	9.750
Melanie Banville Fr	Coaches tapped her to go back in the competitive line-up after two weeks of successful exhibitions.  Opened with a split jump full; bhs to layout step-out; punch front required two steps to balance on landing, amplitude was limited as well; switch leap to straddle was a little hesitant as well but the round off to double twist dismount was landed with only the slightest of shifts.	9.725
Cassie Martin Fr	Trouble from the opening leap, the very tough switch ring leap (slipped down onto the beam and had to hop off); nice front aerial and the bhs to layout-stepout looked good too; switch leap landed with bent shoulder and she went into the double stag and had to hop off again.  You’ve got to admire Cassie for throwing the tough moves and the Bama crowd gave her a hearty applause for her efforts.	8.500
Mari-Christine Bayer (Ex) Sr	Form problem on the layout step-out element of her flight series to open (shoulder dipped a bit).  Excellent switch leap ½ turn and a front aerial also had a wobble but she moved confidently into the scale pose out of this element.  Nice switch leap to straddle and the double stag leap had a little bobble as well.  Finished with a stuck gainer back pike.	Did not catch score
Total		48.825
Gymnast	Floor Exercise Highlights	Score
Ashley Miles Sr	Terrific routine, the one judge likely scored it a 9.95 when she landed the final double pike with chest a little down and forward on the landing.  This was not noticed until the video replay.	9.975
Melanie Banville Fr	Another terrific routine this week and she seemed to enjoy the dance and presentation even more with the home crowd cheering.  Super pike full-in to open, front layout to front full twist to front layout, closed with a stuck double pike.	9.900
Erin Rightley Jr	The score reflects that this was indeed Erin’s best effort of the year on floor.  Super high and controlled landing of the opening double pike; new pass element to follow, which she hit very confidently: front through to a 1 ½ twist to layout step-out; finished with a front-front full twist to a front layout, another excellent landing.	9.900
Ashley O'Neal Fr	She debuted the E mount for the home crowd (double front) but had to take a large two steps forward to balance the landing; the judges appeared to be very impressed with the opening and ending difficulty, a super controlled double pike on her third pass.  Very nice presentation and some of her choreography has been adjusted to make her routine flow better.	9.775
Terin Humphrey So	Perfect landing of the opening double front Arabian pass (no steps to balance); the second pass yielded a few tenths unfortunately, as she was off center a bit on the 2 ½ twist and the punch front out of this had to be landed low and bent at the knees.  But she recovered beautifully to complete all of her required leap and dance elements and ended with a super double pike.	9.775
Brittany Magee Fr	Nailed the opening pass of the ½ in ½ out but was going for the stuck landing on her second pass and had to bound back twice to balance, stepping out of bounds as a result.  Ended with a terrific front through to a double full.	9.600
Total		49.325