Hello fans back in Alabama (Lynne, Sam and Tim in Birmingham!) - including all TiderInsider fans on line with us now. Bama has advanced to the Super Six and will contend for their fifth national championship tomorrow night. The gals faced adversity on two events and overcame both with flying colors with fantastic teamwork. You could just see the pluck and grit in their performances today - they were not going to be denied. The Bama fans up in the rafters just found out the Tide is in the Super Six and they are dancing in the aisles right above and to our right. Roll Tide!

Bama's team total is 196.650 and LSU (196.525) finishes up on balance beam, Florida has finished on the vault (196.900) and these two teams are looking solid to move forward as well. Oklahoma finishes in fourth with a 196.075, Arkansas is fifth at 195.825, and Oregon State is in sixth with a 195.475.

Morgan Dennis finishes with a 39.400 all around score!

Bama needs to nail all six routines to keep momentum going and claim one of three spots to the Super Six. It comes down to this final event. Let's go Tide!

Kaitlin White: completes the full turn to Gienger, pak salto, sticks the landing chest high of the double tuck out of another full turn. Score: 9.825

Ricki Lebegern: great routine but she takes a step on the tuck full in - straddle Jaeger out of a front giant - handstands looked very good. Score: 9.850

Casey Overton: great routine going until the pak salto - she missed her grip on the low bar and went shooting under. Finishes with a full turn to double tuck. Crunch time for Bama's rest. Score: 9.300

Morgan Dennis: comes right back and nails her bars routine to show support for Casey. Beautiful front giant to pike Jaeger and a gorgeous stuck double front dismount. Dee Dee Foster is going hoarse right behind us, she is yelling so loud. Score: 9.90

Kayla Hoffman: Gorgeous form on the full turn to Tkatchev and just misses sticking the double layout, one step back but awesome distance on the landing from the high bar. Score: 9.875

Kassi Price: beautiful routine from the sophomore - big Hindorff, free hip giant to hs, stuck double layout dismount. Score: 9.925

Casey Overton starts with a Yurchenko 1/1 - nails the first vault up for the Tide! Awesome! Score: 9.825

Brittany Magee - Yurchenko 1/1 - tiny check step but she lands it well-centered, beautiful form in the air as well. Score: 9.775

Kaitlin White - Yurchenko 1/1 - sticks the vault but lands it a little chest down - not sure how the judges will view it but the Tide fans here are ecstatic. Score: 9.75

Ricki Lebegern - Yurchenko 1.5 - tiny check step on the landing of this more difficult vault, knees bent a bit in flight as well. Score: 9.800

Morgan Dennis - Yurchenko 1/1 - beautiful vault in the air but she scoots back on the landing. Score: 9.825

Kayla Hoffman - Yurchenko 1/1 - nails her umpteenth vault with gorgeous form as usual. Score: 9.900

Alabama scores 49.125 on vault (tight scoring on this event) and has a running total of 147.275. They must score huge on uneven bars to claim one of three spots. The judges on uneven bars have been the most loose of all four events. If the Tide can hit those handstands and stick the landings they should be in good shape. Right now after three rotations they lead Oklahoma (146.850), Oregon State (146.725) and Arkansas (146.675). Bama is on a bye for the fifth rotation and will return on the uneven bars in rotation six to finish the competition.

Ashley O'Neal: Opens with a front tuck through to round off to double tuck - excellent! Follows with a front through to front full twist to front layout - nice - straddle full to wolf full - finishes with a double pike - nice! Score: 9.800

Kaitlin White: Opens with a front through to a front double twist - just pulls it around and stays in bounds - follows with a double pike - a little leg lift due to her super amplitude but she stands it up chest high - finishes with a front punch layout to immediate Rudi - excellent landing. Score: 9.800

Ricki Lebegern: Beautiful opening triple twist! Follows with a front-front full twist to front layout - just a little off direction - finishes with a double pike - perfect landing! Huge smile from her to close out. Roll Tide! Score: 9.850

Kassi Price: Opens with a terrific 2 1/2 to punch front tuck - second pass is a triple - goes in a little flat but she lands it well - finishes with a double tuck - great landing again. Score: 9.850

Kayla Hoffman: Opens with a pike full in - nails it! Follows with a 2 1/2 to punch front layout - excellent landing. Boogey time - switch leap to split full combination - finishes with a double pike - excellent finish. Score: 9.875

Morgan Dennis: Opens with a double layout - awesome as usual on the amplitude and landing; follows with another E pass - tuck full in - one step back to balance the landing - finishes with a tuck through to double tuck - right on! Score: 9.925

Alabama scores a team score of 49.300 on floor and has a running total of 98.150 after two rotations.

Casey Overton: front aerial, switch leap to straddle jump, bhs to layout step-out (beautiful), full turn to sheep jump, switch side straddle jump, very nice, bhs to full twist, sticks the landing. Could not ask for a better start for the Crimson Tide, effortless routine from start to finish. Score: 9.825

Ashley O'Neal: bhs to layout step-out (falls on second element) - switch leap to straddle jump, punch front - nice, falls also on her double front dismount - this unfortunately looked like a tentative routine from start to finish and you cannot be tentative on the balance beam. Score: 8.600

Ricki Lebegern: BHS to layout step-out - right on! Leg lift but she stays on - switch leap to straddle - switch side leap - very nice - full turn - side Somi - very nice - dismounts with a round off to double twist and nails the landing! She is thrilled and runs off the podium to high five her teammates and coaches. Score: 9.700

Brittany Magee: dance move pose and back walkover (head) onto the beam - so elegant; one arm bhs to layout step-out - beautiful - front aerial walk over - terrific; switch leap to pike jump, awesome; gainer bhs layout is solid, 1 1/4 turn with leg horizontal - dismounts with a round off to 1 1/2, one step forward. Score: 9.775

Kassi Price: Front aerial to beat jump - bhs to layout step-out - slight shoulder shift - switch leap to wolf jump looks good; full turn - wolf front aerial - to beat jump - dismounts with a round off to double tuck - sticks the landing! Score: 9.800

Morgan Dennis: front aerial (leaves out beat jump, slight shoulder check); bhs to layout step-out, slight foot lift; switch leap to straddle jump to beat jump combination; switch leap to beat jump - switch side jump - nice; dismounts with a round off to double tuck - nails the landing! Score: 9.750

The Tide will be able to throw out the low score by Ashley O'Neal but the judges were very tight overall and the team being first up on this event got hammered for even minor checks. Hopefully they will be able to relax and have fun on the next two events, their strongest - floor exercise and vault. The Tide will need to get those scores up big time. The Tide will go out on a bye for rotation two while LSU comes in on floor, Florida on the bars, Arkansas on beam and Oregon State on vault.

Arkansas has a 49.125 on uneven bars to start, Alabama at 48.85 on beam, Oregon State is at 48.85 on floor (two gymnasts stepped out of bounds), Oklahoma is at 48.775 on vault.

The Alabama Crimson Tide is wearing a brand new sparkling metallic crimson and silver white leo with swirling waves on the upper bodice area and down the arms and numerous sequins throughout the fabric reflecting the light.

Oklahoma is in deep ruby red with white contrasting the upper shoulders and arms.

Oregon State is predominately wearing black with an orange and white strip on the upper bodice.

Arkansas is on bars and they are in black with a red stripe on the upper bodice area.

Florida is wearing a metallic blue and orange leo and LSU is in black, purple and gold.

Well Tide fans, the day has finally come. The day of redemption, the day to put to rest the searing disappointment from one year ago when the Tide failed to make the Super Six for only the second time in the program's history. Following a similar less than stellar performance on the West Coast back in early March, the Bama gymnasts received a reality check from former Tide great Dee Dee Foster that fired them up so much they barely finished out of first at SECs and claimed the regional title in Norman, Oklahoma by almost a point and a half over the home-standing Sooners. So here we are at the moment the team has been working so hard to get back to - and Bama must be absolutely resolved to master each event today in order to make it to the Super Six. They can do this by performing the way they did on balance beam, floor and vault at Regionals two weeks ago and by finishing strongly on the uneven bars with their best performance of the year. Bama's pluck and grit will be on the line today - nothing less than perfection will be required to get them to their one goal - The Super Six! Let's do it Bama!

Teams competing in Session One are now being introduced in this order: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, LSU, Oklahoma and Oregon State.

and the coaches are having them work extra hard on the handstands and dismounts. Casey Overton and Cassie Martin will be last minute decisions for the sixth position. Both are looking solid right now in the warm-ups and Martin has replaced her dismount with a double tuck.

for the 2008 NCAA Gymnastics Championships.

Alabama has already completed their 15 minute touch warm-ups on three of four events today and will step out on a bye before returning in their final rotation on the uneven bars.

We have learned that we will be allowed to actually post during the competition, up to about 10 posts total, in order to keep our fans abreast of what is going on live. So we will make sure to condense all the important details with specific focus on the Crimson Tide of course and how they are faring in today's preliminary, Session One.

The GymTide had a great practice yesterday and are looking focused and determined in their workouts this morning so far. Hopefully this will transfer to a terrific competition and a top three finish this afternoon so they can advance to the Super Six tomorrow night. Bama fans are here supporting their team, including former Tide great, Dee Dee Foster, who has taken this team on as her personal mission this year, supporting them at SECs and now here in Athens. She is helping to fire up the parents in the Bama section behind us and no doubt Kassi Price's parents will be helping her to lead the cheers. Our other Bama section unfortunately is in the upper level to our right but they are cheering loudly for the team.

Right now Florida is warming up on floor, LSU on bars, Arkansas on vault, and Oregon State on the balance beam. Alabama and Oklahoma are sitting out this warm-up rotation on a bye.