Another stop on our journey has been checked off and we are now enjoying having an off weekend coming up. This is close to that half way mark of the regular season and it's so exciting to see how far we've come and the improvements that have been made in the first five meets.
This past weekend was our fourth annual Pink Meet, and somehow it managed to outdo last year's competition. This is now the third year I have been a part of it and to be honest, I am more moved and appreciative each time. Perhaps it's knowing more people affected by breast cancer or maybe it's just feeling more and more part of this Alabama family. Whatever the reason, I know that as much as I'm touched by this cause, there are hundreds and thousands of people in the audience whose lives will never be the same as a result of the meet. It's so incredible to be part of such a huge event knowing that what our team is out there doing on the competition floor is motivating and encouraging so many people and helping save lives. Now that is what it's all about.
I think it's so important to be competing for a greater cause, digging deep inside to find that internal spark. When you are looking outside of yourself and focusing on the big picture, the results will take care of themselves and the success will come. And that is exactly what happened Friday night. We're continuing to make progress and get more girls experience in the lineups. I felt like the atmosphere was just wonderful; we were all so calm and collected and everyone just knew how much each one of us could affect some of the people in the stands.
We had an incredible vaulting rotation with Ricki and Kayla nailing their vaults, and Casey debuting her gorgeous yurchenko full. Momentum carried over to the bars with Morgan leading us off and Kassi putting the icing on the cake with yet another 9.95 routine. In between those spectacular sets was the exciting return of Terin who was able to pull out one of her signature 9.9 routines. Kayla and Kaitlin also had great sets, and Ricki did too, aside from hitting her eye on the bar after catching a jaeger a little too close. None of us had any idea she had hit the bar until after she finished an otherwise perfect routine and we all crowded around her to congratulate her and saw that she had scraped her eyelid! But being the tough cookie she is, she just sat there with that mega grin, complaining that she lost half of her eye lashes!! Ha ha, she is such a sport!!
On beam we ran into a few troubles, which was somewhat shocking because for the most part we have been very solid on this event. But we had a great comeback and really relied on team work to pull us through. Floor went pretty well too. There were a few little mistakes here and there but there also were several new additions to routines. Casey actually competed a brand new floor routine that she had had for about three days and the crowd really responded well to that. Ricki switched the double tuck from the last pass to the first pass and ended with a double pike to get her ready to add the full in the near future. Morgan threw her full in for the first time this year as well. So there were a lot of changes and upgrades, and it's always good to do them now and get the jitters out!
Well that's it for this week...next Chalk Talk I'll definitely have some more practice updates and non-gymnastics news from our lives:) Hope ya'll have a great week...ROLL TIDE ROLL!!
