Sunday, March 21, 1999

Pooh Bear's assistants got a chance to visit practice this past Sunday and saw an upbeat, relaxed and confident team go through their competition line-up, starting with bars and ending with the vault. They had a visiting judge in to provide scoring feedback and tips on where the team needs to polish their performances prior to SECs and Regionals.

On the uneven bars, the Tide continues to look strong with the line-up of Robin, Gwen, Whitney, Dara, Andree and Natalie. All performed without any mishap while the final four competitors had especially clean routines and stuck their dismounts. Katie had several strong practice routines and appears ready to enter the line-up as needed while Mandy continues to experience regrasping problems with her pike Jaeger release. It is unknown whether Raegan Tomasek will be called upon to do bars again this year, despite throwing solid routines during the early part of the season.

On the balance beam, the line-up went as follows: Mandy, Dara, Andree, Alexa, Raegan, and Lissy (Gwen not expected to practice beam until Wednesday). Five of the team members performed with remarkable calm and only a few had slight balance checks. Alexa performed her more difficult skills just fine (flight series and ¾ straddle jump) but she had a few balance checks on her gymacro series and a switch leap to ¾ wolf jump. She was a little tearful afterwards but was quickly surrounded and comforted by her teammates, who did not appear to have any concern that, come Saturday, she would meet the challenge with a superior performance. Moments like these are the best because it really shows what teamwork is all about.

The floor exercise was really interesting to observe because, despite this being a practice competition, all gymnasts were energized and technically on target with their skills. Krista exhibited her routine first, throwing a high double pike, followed by a whip, whip to double twist and ending with a double twist. If she could get that full in by nationals, what a treat that would be for our floor score! Lexa exhibited next and had a really solid routine with great dance and expression, while all skills were thrown confidently. The line-up of Mandy, Lissy, Robin, Andree and Raegan (Gwen held out until Wednesday) went next without balance checks or missing of skills. Highlights included Raegan's beautiful double pike, a sky-high 2 ½ by Robin and booming double tuck by Andree.

Ending on vault, the Tide threw one after the other with confidence and excellent distance on each. Dara started off with a rock solid front pike, followed by Raegan's and Whitney's, all three with nailed landings. Robin had a balance check with one foot on both of her vaults but she achieved excellent push off the horse on both while Katie nailed her vault the first time! Andree finished with an excellent first vault run (one hop) but was limited in her form and distance on vault run number two, to the teasing amazement of her teammates! It's nice to see Andree show that she is human now and then because we were starting to think she was the bionic woman! Roll Tide Roll!