The Alabama Gymnastics team moved up to No. 5 in the latest gymnastics rankings, up four spots from last week.

The Crimson Tide wasn't the only team to jump this week. Arizona State, 16th a week ago, leapt to No. 3, behind top-ranked UCLA and No. 2 Georgia.

Nebraska, the Tide's opponent this Sunday, remains at No. 4. Utah drops three spots to No. 6 while three teams on the Tide's 2003 schedule, Florida, Denver and Michigan, hold down the Nos. 7, 8 and 9 positions respectively. Stanford rounds out the top-10.

Alabama's next opponent, Arkansas, is just out of the top-25, coming in at No. 26. The Tide faces the Lady Razorbacks, in their first year of competition, on Friday (Jan. 24) in Fayetteville before moving on to Lincoln, Neb. on Sunday.

Alabama jumped 24 spots in the balance beam rakings this week. Head Coach Sarah Patterson's ladies are ranked second nationally after posting a 49.550 last weekend at Georgia. The Tide is fifth o n the vault, sixth on the floor exercise and 10th on the uneven bars.

Junior Jeana Rice is ranked No. 1 on the balance beam after scoring a 10.0 at Georgia last Saturday. She is only the third Alabama gymnast in team history to earn a perfect mark on that event. The All-American is third in the all-around, just behind the UCLA duo of Onnie Willis and Jamie Dantzscher. Rice is fourth on the uneven bars and No. 8 on the vault

Freshman Ashley Miles is second on the floor exercise and third on the vault. Rookie Dana Pierce is 12th on the balance beam.

And as much as the rankings changed this week, there will be drastic changes next week. For the first two weeks, the rankings are figured by high score, starting next week, the rankings will be figured by straight average.

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