CORVALLIS, Ore. - Practice time is over. After working out on the equipment here in Gill Coliseum for about 90 minutes, the next thing on the Alabama Gymnastics team's schedule is day one of the NCAA Championships.

"Today was all about adjusting the equipment, getting a feel for it," Alabama head coach Sarah Patterson said. "We did a good job of that, and staying loose and having fun. We're ready to go at this point, we're ready for tomorrow."

The Crimson Tide arrived in Oregon late Monday night, capping a day that included morning classes and full practice, the last Tuscaloosa-based one of the year. After landing in Portland, Alabama bused the hour and a half to Corvallis and then spent Tuesday making the adjustment to the Pacific time zone, stretching and studying.

And now, with the final preparations out of the way, there is just the meet left.

"We have had our best practices of the year since we got back from regionals," Patterson said. "This much travel is always tough, with back-to-back trips to the west coast, but I think the ladies have handled it well and we're good to go."

Alabama is in the afternoon session of tomorrow's team preliminaries with LSU, Michigan, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Utah starting at 1 p.m. PT. The evening session, comprised of Georgia, Arizona State, Florida, Oregon State, Iowa State and Arkansas, gets underway at 7 p.m. PT. Three teams from each session will advance to the NCAA Super Six Team Finals on Friday night.

Alabama has been to 24 consecutive NCAA Championships, and comes into this year after finishing second a year ago. The Tide has finished in the top-3 at the national championships each of the last four years, including the 2002 NCAA title. Since its first appearance in 1982, Alabama has not missed a championship and has finished in the top-4 an NCAA-best 20 times.

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