PBAs had a chance to catch 2007 Tide signee, Kayla Hoffman, in action this past weekend at the 2006 U.S. Classic in Kansas City, Missouri. Kayla finished 10^th in the All Around and earned the silver medal (2^nd) on the Floor Exercise.   Here are some of the highlights of her routines.

Kayla started off on the vault and competed a super Yurchenko 1.5, sticking the landing and showing excellent height, form and stretch throughout the execution of this vault. She has a lot of confidence on this event and is expected to vault a Yurchenko 2/1 at Nationals in three weeks like she did in 2005.

Next up was the uneven bars and Kayla threw a Hindorff release with excellent height and form but encountered trouble after completing a 1½ turn to a Tkatchev (caught left heel on the high bar and had to come off). She remounted and completed a very nice stalder to straddle release combination from low to high bar and dismounted with a double layout, one step forward on the landing. There was intricate pirouetting in her routine for bonus; she aggressively rotates the bars and hits handstands consistently.

Moving to the balance beam, we saw some very impressive, difficult skills but some significant balance checks as well that unfortunately lowered her final score. Highlights included a terrific mount: straddle press to handstand to a full turn in handstand position to a straddle press back down (pose) and then ¼ turn to sit down; back handspring to back pike, 1½ turn, running split leap full turn, a back tuck to sheep jump, aerial front walk-over to back handspring layout step-out, switch leap-switch leap combination, dismount: bhs-bhs-double pike. Whoosh!

Kayla was able to put together one of the best floor exercise performances of the competition, opening with an incredible whip to triple twist, followed immediately by a full in (pike position); her third tumbling pass consisted of a 2½ twist to punch layout and she closed with a very strong double pike. All passes were in bounds with well-controlled landings and her only significant deductions likely came on some leap combinations not being executed to the judges' satisfaction.

We will post reports on Kayla's and 2007 signee Kassi Price's performances at the upcoming U.S.A. Visa Championships (weekend of August 17-19^th) once information becomes available. Roll Tide!