The Alabama Crimson Tide Gymnastics Team notched a decisive West Regional championship victory over the home-standing Stanford Cardinal (3rd Place) and the Oregon State Beavers (2nd) at Palo Alto last weekend.  In the process they secured their 24th straight NCAA National Championship appearance, second in the nation only to the Utah Utes. We’ll briefly review some of the Tide’s highlights on each rotation and talk about what performances they will need on these same events at Nationals to ensure a trip to Super Six night in Corvallis

At the West Regional Championship, Bama as a team struggled initially on their first and historically strongest event, the floor exercise (48.875), where freshman Melanie Banville had uncharacteristic miscues on her second and third tumbling passes that resulted in her score being tossed out (9.075).  Fortunately, freshman Brittany Magee and senior Ashley Miles picked up the pace for identical 9.90 scores. The Tide was happy to get out without having to count a fall, though a lower than expected score of 9.60 was counted when sophomore Kaitlin White had to be inserted for sophomore Terin Humphrey, who missed some practices due to time off for her brother’s wedding.  Freshman Ashley O'Neal (9.725) and junior Erin Rightley (9.750) turned in respectable scores in their respective lead-off routines.

Nationals Outlook on Floor Exercise

For the Crimson Tide to advance out of the preliminary session at Nationals to Super Six Night, they will need big performances from Banville, Magee, Humphrey and Miles on the floor because they have the most difficult tumbling (each with E passes) and thus have the greatest chance to secure the higher scores.  Rightley and O’Neal will need to stay cleanly in bounds and hit their respective D tumbling passes with crisp confidence.  And it goes without saying that each routine will need to have precise dance and maximum presentation effort (big smiles, eye contact with the audience) to garner the attention of the judges in between the tumbling.  Bama has realistic potential to earn four (4) All America titles on this one event but since it is their first rotation, the scores will likely be somewhat conservative unless the gymnasts literally perform like a house on fire.  They must generate their own electricity in Gill Coliseum this Thursday afternoon to gain control of the meet from this opening event.

Bama’s second rotation at the West Regional Championship was vault (49.100) and again, this is traditionally a strong event for the Tide but they were unable to muster a superior effort on this date to match the earlier season high of a 49.425.  Kaitlin White started things off well with a superb Yurchenko 1/1 that she stuck chest high, but this fine effort only garnered a 9.800 from the four judges.  A slightly jammed and twisted landing on the next Yurchenko 1/1 vault by Melanie Banville (9.625) and average efforts by Terin Humphrey (9.750 for a Y 1/1) and Dana Filetti (9.750 for a Hristakieva) kept the team score lower than expected until Brittany Magee stuck her Yurchenko 1/1 (9.90) and Ashley Miles took a small hop on her gigantic Y 1/1 (9.90). 

Nationals Outlook on Vault

Alabama was the highest scoring team on vault last year at Nationals during Super Six night and they are overdue for another big score on this event.  Sticking their vaults is a must but even more so we need to see strong runs and repulsion off the vault table along with tight body form in the air so that the Tide’s vaults will clearly separate themselves from the other teams’ efforts.  

After going out on a bye in rotation three at the West Regional Championship, Bama returned in rotation four to the uneven bars.  The Tide was hoping for another dynamic team performance to match their SEC Championship success on bars but had to settle for a respectable 49.150.  Ashley Miles (9.800), freshman Cassie Martin (9.750), senior Mari-Christine Bayer (9.850), Melanie Banville (9.900), Dana Filetti (9.775) and Terin Humphrey (9.825) hit their routines for the most part and only garnered deductions for either missing handstands perfectly or taking a step on the dismount landings. 

Nationals Outlook on Uneven Bars

Whatever magic the Tide generated on this event at SECs, they need to recapture it to maximize the scoring total in the NCAA preliminary session.  Bama’s uneven bars line-up is now set and it appears the team is finally relying on each other with more confidence.  The key to the higher scores lies in two crucial areas: handstands must be precise and not hurried and dismounts must be stuck.  Problems in these two areas have affected the scores of defending NCAA bars champion Terin Humphrey and 1st Team All-American Dana Filetti throughout the 2006 season.   If these two routines are executed at one-tenth of a point higher level than their average performances this year, Bama has a strong chance to notch a superior team score overall.  The Tide’s body lines and overall difficulty on this event are very attractive features to the judges, but they must execute their skills at the highest level possible to garner the scores they deserve.

The Tide finished in rotation five at the West Regional on the balance beam and this is where they will finish their preliminary session at NCAAs in Corvallis.  The team score of a 49.350 was the highest of the 2006 season and demonstrated that Bama can perform on this most difficult event with grace under pressure. Brittany Magee’s confident lead-off 9.850 performance and Melanie Banville’s season high follow-up score of a 9.875 were exciting to behold. Marred only by a break at the waist on her round off to layout step-out mount, Ashley Miles hit the rest of her routine like the senior leader she has become (9.625), nailing the double twist dismount cold.  Erin Rightley didn’t flinch (9.875) as she followed with her career best performance and Mari-Christine Bayer (9.850) matched her with similar steadfast calm in front of her hometown fans.  Terin Humphrey was set up beautifully for her best performance of the year on this event (9.90) and it was a relieved Bama Gymtide that departed the arena to wait out the sixth and final rotation. 

Nationals Outlook on Balance Beam

Alabama’s beam line-up is expected to remain the same and the team’s growing confidence on this event could not have come at a better time.  If the Tide performs as well as they did at Regionals and improves their execution on the other three events as noted above, they should easily advance to Super Six Night.  Here’s hoping they have their best team performances of the 2006 season on Thursday AND Friday.  Roll Tide!