The Alabama Gymnastics team heads to Gainesville, Florida this week for the second road trip of the 1999 season against the University of Florida Gators, who finished the 1998 gymnastics season ranked 2^nd in the country. The GatorsÆ preseason hopes and expectations for a possible championship may not be realized due to the recent loss of Senior All-American and two-time defending NCAA Vault champion, Susan Hines, to a torn ACL. Additionally, the Gators are without the entire talents of all-arounder, Betsy Hamm, except for bars and beam (the latter event in which she debuted only last week for the Æ99 season). As if that were not enough to send a true fan into orbit, Junior Jamie Graziano has been sitting out a four meet suspension and will not return to the competition line-up until after this weekÆs meet. On the bright side, Florida has several gymnasts who continue to persevere despite this adversity, including junior All-American Chrissy Van Fleet, junior Mary Ann Esposito and exciting freshmen, Hilary Thompson and Lisa Geckle. Look for GeckleÆs bar routine to be scored high if she stays on. The fans in Gainesville have not been very patient with FloridaÆs woes and yet may still show up in large numbers to see the #1 ranked team in the nation and their strong freshman class. Bama will start off on uneven bars, where they are also ranked #1 in the nation (Florida #10) and they will need another stellar team performance to put the Gators on the ropes early. Florida is a strong vaulting team (#10 despite the absence of Hines and Hamm) and will look to take advantage of the Olympic rotation early. If the Tide struggles early on bars, watch out! On beam and floor exercise, Alabama has a clear advantage if they hit, but, as we learned last week, the beam can be unforgiving. With a freshman class that handled themselves well against Georgia in Athens earlier this year, look for renewed efforts from Alexa Martinez on the beam, Raegan Tomasek on the vault and floor, and Whitney Morgan on vault and bars. Andree Pickens will look to continue her winning ways in the all-around (ranked #4 nationally) as will sophomore Robin Hawkins (#21). The Tide will need to see Mandy Chapman return to her consistent self on the beam and floor while Gwen Spidle may need to return to the beam period. This is an opportunity for the team to garner a strong road score for later RQS rankings and to prepare for two tough meets just around the corner: UGA and PSU. There will be a bevy of Tide fans traveling to Gainesville for the Friday meet and scores will be available through the UA media relations department as competition unfolds. Roll Tide Roll!