PBAs and Salto hitched up the wagon and headed to T-Town on Sunday, October 12, to watch the Crimson Tide gymnasts practice. Sophomore Larissa Stewart and freshman Meredith Laxton were mainly doing conditioning work but also were spotted on the balance beam.  Larissa is recovering from a non-gymnastics injury to her hand (a knife cut that went a little too deep), which will hold her out from uneven bars practice for awhile.  Meredith is rehabbing from an ACL injury suffered last Spring.  Brittany Comeaux and several of the gals were recovering from colds or stomach bugs but all were working the equipment.  Now for the details…

Jeana Rice: Super gal was working on her uneven bars routine and we got a chance to see her stand up her new dismount, a full twisting double layout, which she landed with incredible distance from the high bar.  On floor she was working on her signature piked full in (opening pass) and a variety of front tumbling saltos for her new second pass to satisfy those judges that want to see both front and back tumbling.  She reportedly will have new music this year after tumbling to Motley Crue in 2003.

Stephanie Kite: The Austin, Texas native was polishing up her vault (pike ½ twist) and on floor she was throwing a new pass to include back tumbling (round off bhs to whip ½ to front full twist).  She remains one of the Tide's strongest floor tumblers, having performed 16 of 16 routines without a miss in 2003.  No word yet as to whether she too will have new music for her final year.

Lauren Holdefer: Our local town favorite (from Northport) was easily throwing her new floor pass, a running double front.  The coaches noted that Lauren is having more consistent success with the double front straight on than from a front handspring because now she doesn't have time to think about or worry too much as she is preparing to execute the move, she just throws it!  Her landings with this skill were steady and high at the waist on this date.  On vault, Lauren will return to the pike ½ twist because the value for her 2003 vault (¼ on ¾ off front pike) has been dropped to a 9.90 for 2004 due to the inconsistency of the judges in scoring this vault correctly during the past few years.  Lauren's pike ½ twist runs on this date were fortunately looking great, the best we've seen from her with this vault in fall practice (already landing on the soft mats). 

Alexis Brion: The Virginia Beach, Virginia native was on the bars and floor and wowed the fans present with her double layout tumbling passes.  Bryan Raschilla had to reach up above his shoulder to spot her, that's how high Alexis was on the second salto.  She looked to be pleased and rather awed that she had so easily done this skill that she had not competed or practiced for several years.  Applause broke out from her teammates and fans when she successfully took this first major step.  Her athleticism never ceases to amaze us.  On the bars, she is looking even more confident with her giant uprises to handstand positions and her full pirouettes.  She nailed a super Tkatchev release and is very close to getting her second one, a pak Salto.   Alexis was also practicing a full pirouette to double tuck dismount in the pits on this date.

Shannon Hrozek: The quiet but steady junior was working vault, bars and beam today.  She did several solid reps on the beam with her flight series (bhs-layout-bhs) and the dismount (double twist).  On bars, she will not be throwing the Tkatchev as a second release but was working on a transition release to the low bar (to handstand position) instead and a full out dismount into the pits (very nice height and position in the air on this move).  On vault, Shannon will be throwing the Yurchenko 1/1, which was looking very good on this date (good extension, toe point and twisting). 

Michelle Reeser: The tiny but tenacious dynamo was working a full in dismount off the bars onto the soft mats and will be throwing a Yurchenko full twist on, pike off vault this year.  Her beam reps were impressive as well, no major changes noted in this routine.  Michelle's new floor music is a secret from PBAs even, so hopefully we'll have more to report by Ghosts vs Goblins (October 31). 

Mari-Christine Bayer: Mari was mainly working bars, beam and vault as well.  Coach Patterson was tweaking her choreography a bit on the beam and she was also practicing a switch leap to immediate back pike dismount combination.  Neat!  On bars, the pesky Jaeger was Mari's nemesis during several reps and she was alternating between a double tuck and a double pike dismount.  On vault, she was throwing the Yurchenko 1/1 into the pits.

Rachael Delahoussaye: On this date she danced through her floor choreography to "Funeral for a Friend" and worked the balance beam.  Her beam moves appear to have been slowed down a bit by Coach Patterson, with extra emphasis on certain moves.  She threw a super nice wolf Popa with excellent amplitude and toe point. Rachael's already in great shape for the coming year.

Dana Filetti: The "I love to practice" award for this date has to go to Filetti.  She was standing up her vaults consistently ( Yurchenko full twist on, pike off) and her floor runs were very impressive as well (triple twist, double pike, 2 ½ punch front).  On the uneven bars she was throwing a double front dismount with a half twist.  There was energy and focus emanating from her throughout practice.  It looks like this could be a breakout year for her, which would give the Tide extra depth on the floor and vault.

Ashley Miles: Her name is now writ in crimson flame on the wall underneath Andree Pickens as the 2003 Vault Champion.  But Ashley is not resting on her laurels.  She seems determined to get back into the bars line-up for 2004 and worked a new routine on this date, sans the Shaposhnikova but keeping the toe-on toe-off to full pirouette to immediate Tkatchev and now a double layout dismount, which she executed with ease. Salto's only comment after she threw a full routine with the new dismount was "WOW."  On beam she is still struggling with the very difficult bhs to tuck ½ twist combination so we'll keep an eye on this routine to see if any changes will be made by Coach Patterson.

Dana Pierce: Lots of uneven bars and balance beam work for the Advance, Indiana native on this date.  She was practicing a double layout dismount off the bars and struggled a bit with her Tkatchev release but the rest of her routine looked solid.  On beam we saw the great amplitude Dana gets on her leap series (switch leap side, straddle-straddle combo). 

Larissa Stewart: As noted earlier, Larissa was getting most of her reps on the stationary bike but she did several leap series and scales on the balance beam. Very elegant on the switch leap reps.

Brittany Comeaux: This was our first chance to see Bama's newest international elite gymnast and unfortunately she was under the weather a bit.  She managed to work the uneven bars (very nice lines, mainly threw giants and pirouetting), vault (Yurchenko ½ off front layout) and her beam dismount (running tuck with a ½ twist?).  The coaches are very pleased with her progress on all four events at this point.  We hope to have more to report on her skills after the Ghosts vs. Goblins intra-squad meet.

Johnna Gay: Like Rachael Delahoussaye this past year, Johnna will open the eyes of fans with her form and presentation on the balance beam.  Coach Patterson is tweaking her choreography on beam to help it flow more and the results are already impressive.  David and Bryan have also had quick impact on Johnna's skills on the uneven bars, where she is swinging her giants more confidently and throwing a Tkatchev with greater amplitude and leg extension.  Johnna was also throwing a Yurchenko 1/1 on this date and just needs more reps to get that tighter form and extension needed for maximum scoring. 

Meredith Laxton: Due to her ACL rehabbing, we saw her only on the balance beam, where Coach Patterson was refining some of her choreography as well.  She is very elegant and confident on the beam, showing nice toe point and extension as well as hand positions. 

Erin Rightley: Look out! Here's a freshman who has already captured Dana Dobransky-Duckworth's attention.  Now we know why the coaches were so keen on the Ft. Walton, Florida native, after seeing her work through her floor routine with Dana on this date.  She has natural dance ability and interpretation of music that's eerily similar to Dana's.  She reportedly will be throwing a double pike on floor, a second pass consisting of a Rudi and a double full to Shushonova combination for her final pass.  On the beam we saw a very nice flight series of bhs-bhs-layout. 

We look forward to reporting more on the freshmen over the next several weeks.  Look for times to be set for the Friday, October 31, 2003 Ghosts vs Goblins Intra-squad on this website.  Roll Tide!