For the fifth time since 1985, an Alabama athlete has earned the Honda Award for Gymnastics.

Senior Jeana Rice, who won the NCAA All-Around title at the recent national championships, earned the award that denotes the nation's top gymnast. The Longwood, Fla. native is now eligible for the Honda-Broderick Cup, given annually to the nation's top female student-athlete. Rice and 11 other sports winners, will gather in New York, NY June 21 when the Cup winner will be announced.

"It tops of this season and my career," Rice said. "I've been doing this since I was little and I finally feel I can step away from gymnastics because I've accomplished everything that I wanted to accomplish. I feel complete in this aspect of my life. I can move on without looking back."

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Much of the following article was to have appeared in a 'weblog' during the week of the championship. However, due to circumstances beyond my control (but likely only because I don't know enough about computers!) I was unable to post on a daily basis while in Los Angeles. Better late than never, as they say, here is my Nationals diary:

Saturday, April 10, 2004:
Birmingham, Alabama: We started our quest for Los Angeles and the 2004 Gymnastics National Championships at the Birmingham Airport. As usual, we had carefully and economically packed for our trip by jamming full two huge rolling duffle bags and two right-a-the-size-limit carry-ons. The bag inspector groaned and grunted as he power-lifted the duffles onto the x-ray machine conveyor-belt. The Magic City's terminal had it's usual early morning light crowd. Our gymnastics buddies and traveling companions, Bob, Sara, and their boy, Bert, soon arrived on the scene. Although the weather was threatening a thunderstorm, only a light sprinkle showed up before our plane took off.

In the Air: The flight over was largely uneventful - just one crying baby ( but, Oiy!, what a crier - and right in front of us!). The cloud cover over Birmingham persisted, for the most part, from coast to coast, only breaking up for a short time over Arizona. And the famous "brown LA haze" was in full force over the City of the Angels when we arrived.

The Alabama Gymnastics team was honored at its annual season ending banquet Saturday (April 24) night at the Bryant Conference Center. The banquet is sponsored by the Crimson Tide's booster organization, The Medalist Club.

In addition to celebrating its third place finish at last week's NCAA Championships, senior Jeana Rice and sophomore Ashley Miles were named co-captains of the 2004 squad. Rice was also named "Most Valuable".

Rice won the postseason 'triple crown' by taking top honors in the all-around at the Southeastern Conference Championships, the NCAA West Region Championships and the NCAA Championships. She earned Alabama's fifth NCAA All-Around title. The Longwood, Fla. native also earned five All-American honors on the season, giving her an NCAA record 18 career accolades. Rice set an SEC Championship record in the all-around and tied the school record of 39.850.

This past weekend in Los Angeles, California, the Alabama Crimson Tide secured a third place showing at the NCAA National Championships. Senior Jeana Rice shocked the prognosticators by bringing home the coveted All Around Trophy, bypassing home town favorites Jeanette Antolin, Kristen Maloney and Kate Richardson. Sophomore Ashley Miles successfully defended her individual vault title and grabbed the floor exercise title as well along with sophomore Courtney Bumpers of North Carolina. All in all it was a successful campaign for a team that will return 18 of 24 routines in 2005 and welcome two international elites and a standout Level 10 performer into the fold. We'll take this opportunity to review the various contributions of Alabama's team members to the success of the 2004 season and what we can expect of them in 2005.

We've got a new slide show and a photo album for the NCAA Nationals (1)

• Slide Show: NCAA Nationals (1)
• Photo Album: NCAA Nationals (1)

Here are a few of the Photos:
(Click on a thumbnail to view a full size picture)

96 kb 01. Former Elite Alexis adapts easily to the podium floor

91 kb 02. Ashley demos her floor in warmups

101 kb 03. From any angle Jeana has great style

NCAA All-Around Champion Jeana Rice has been named a finalist for the Honda Award for Gymnastics, given annually to the nation's top gymnast.

Rice is coming off a senior season second to none. In addition to winning the national all-around title, she also won her second consecutive Southeastern Conference All-Around Championship and her third NCAA Regional All-Around title in four years. The Longwood, Fla. native set the NCAA record for career All-American honors this past weekend when her five 2004 honors bumped her total to 18, bettering the previous mark held jointly by Alabama's Dee Foster and Kentucky's Jenny Hansen.

"Jeana has enjoyed a tremendous career," head coach Sarah Patterson said. "And she is obviously highly deserving of this recognition. She really took it to another level this year and that showed in her high level of competition from the season's first week through Saturday night."

The University of Alabama gymnastics Medalist club 2004 Awards Banquet will be Saturday, April 24th 2004 at 7:00 p.m. at the Bryant Conference Center-Sellers Auditorium-Tuscaloosa Alabama. All Medalist club membership will be contacted via phone from a Medalist club board member for reservations. For additional information contact Randy Howell at 556-2108

LOS ANGLES, CALIF - The best just got better. University of Alabama gymnastics sophomore Ashley Miles won her second consecutive NCAA Vault Championship and added a share of the NCAA Floor Exercise title here in Pauley Pavilion tonight.

Miles shares the floor title with UNC freshman Courtney Bumpers, with both women scoring a 9.9375. Miles' winning vault total, a 9.94375 was a tenth of a point better than her winning score from a year ago.

The San Antonio, Texas native becomes the first Alabama gymnast to repeat as national champion on an event since Dana Dobranksy (now the Tide's volunteer coach) went back-to-back on the balance beam in 1992 and 1993, her junior and senior season. She is the first Tide athlete to win two NCAA titles in a single season since Penny Hauschild won the floor exercise and all-around title in 1986.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - The University of Alabama Gymnastics team tied the Stanford Cardinal for third place here at the NCAA Championships with a 197.125. The Crimson Tide was led by senior Jeana Rice's 39.65 in the all-around.

UCLA won its fifth NCAA Championship with a Super Six record of 198.125, breaking the 198.025 mark set by Alabama in 1996. Georgia took second with a 197.200 followed by Stanford in third with a 197.125. Florida was fifth at 196.800 and Utah finished sixth with a 195.875.

It was Alabama's third consecutive top-3 finish. In the last rotation, sophomore Ashley Miles scored a 9.950 on the floor exercise to lead Alabama to a 49.475. Rice scored a 9.925 and junior Alexis Brion posted a 9.9. Seniors Lauren Holdefer and Stephanie Kite both posted 9.85s.

• Advancing to tonight's NCAA Super Six Team Finals guarantees that Alabama will finish among the nation's top six for the 21st time in 22 NCAA Championships appearances.
  
  
• Alabama holds the NCAA Super Six scoring record of 198.025, which they posted in winning the 1996 NCAA Championship.
  
  
• Alabama has finished out of the NCAA Super Six Team Finals only once since the current format was introduced in 1993, giving the Crimson Tide 11 Super Six appearances and seven in a row. The Tide's lone Super Six miss came in 1997.
  
  
• Alabama has four NCAA titles, five runner-up finishes and 13 top-3 finishes.
  
  

LOS ANGELES, CALIF - It was the University of Alabama gymnastic team's last routine of the night and senior Jeana Rice's balance beam routine was doubly important here at Pauley Pavilion in the evening session of the NCAA Championships team preliminaries.

If Rice hit her routine, Alabama was guaranteed the second of three slots in tomorrow night's NCAA Super Six Team final and if she hit big, she would win the NCAA All-Around Championship.

She did both, scoring a session best 9.9 on the balance beam to advance the Tide with a 197.325 and score a 39.650 all-around total.

LOS ANGELES -- Practice time is all over for the 2004 Alabama Gymnastics team and all that is left now is the quest for NCAA Championship No. 5 starting tonight here in Pauley Pavilion.

The NCAA Team Preliminaries get underway today (Thursday, April 15) with 12 teams competing in two sessions, all hoping to qualify for Friday's NCAA Super Six Team Finals. Alabama will compete in the evening session, which gets underway at 7 p.m. PDT, includes defending NCAA Champions and host school UCLA, Utah, LSU, Michigan and Arizona State. The Tide will be vying for one of the three spots available in tomorrow's finals.

Alabama has faced LSU and Michigan already this season, beating both of them on the road. UCLA has won four titles all-time, including three in past four years. Utah has won nine NCAA titles, the last coming in 1995. Alabama has four titles, coming in 1988, 1991, 1996 and 2002.

Stanford, Florida Georgia, Iowa, Oklahoma and Nebraska compete this afternoon for one of three spots available from their session.

We've got a new slide show and a photo album for the NCAA West Regionals

• Slide Show: NCAA West Regionals
• Photo Album: NCAA West Regionals

Here are a few of the Photos:
(Click on a thumbnail to view a full size picture)

37 kb 01. Alexis maxes a side-split leap

81 kb 02. Mari's ring leap is golden

50 kb 03. One end of the beam to another for Michelle

[ National Rotation Schedule ] - Adobe Acrobat file

Last Saturday night the University of Alabama gymnastics team earned their 22nd consecutive bid to the NCAA Championships. Sunday they found out who their competition was to advance to the Super Six Finals.

On Thursday, April 15, The Crimson Tide will compete in the evening session (7 p.m. PT) of the team preliminaries in Los Angeles, Calif. along with UCLA, Utah, LSU, Michigan and Arizona State. The top-3 scoring teams from that session will advance to the next night's Super Six.

In the afternoon session (1 p.m. PT), three Super Six finalists will emerge from a group that includes Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Stanford.

Corvallis, Ore. - Things don't get much more pressure packed than this.

Alabama was cruising towards its 22nd consecutive trip to the NCAA Championships when two falls on the uneven bars and a hot vaulting streak by Oregon State brought the NCAA West Region Championships down to Alabama senior Jeana Rice. Oregon State was done and Rice had to score a 9.85 to tie the home standing Beavers and earn a bid to nationals.

But this is Jeana Rice we're talking about, the two-time SEC All-Around Champion, one of the nation's best all-arounders, and an athlete at her best when things are tightest.

CORVALLIS, ORE - A solid practice session behind them, the No. 3 Alabama Gymnastics team is ready to compete here in Gill Coliseum tomorrow night for one of the two bids to the NCAA Championships available out of the NCAA West Region Championship.

After traveling cross country on Wednesday, Alabama took yesterday to see the sights of Oregon, traveling approximately an hour to the state's rugged coastline. Today though, it was back to business as the Crimson Tide worked out for over an hour, getting its first test run on the equipment they will compete on tomorrow night at 6 p.m. PT. Things went smoothly with the gymnasts laughing and smiling between rotations.

"We're ready," Alabama head coach Sarah Patterson said. "We had a good day today. We don't have to be extraordinary tomorrow night to advance. We have to be very good, but we don't have to do anything that is outside our abilities. We just have to keep going the way we have been over the last month of the season and we will advance to the national championships."

"And there's still a hour before the meet starts," said the disbelieving Florida fan to a fellow Gator. They just shook their heads as the sea of Bama fans behind the little knot of Gator faithful continued cheering 'Roll Tide!' and 'Go, Bama!'. It wasn't long, however, before the Gator fans were up doing the 'Gator chomp' taunt and a few '2-4-6-8' cheers of their own. And so it was, from the warm-ups right through to the end of the meet, the atmosphere at the SEC Championship was simply electric.

There was a method to our cheering madness, in that we knew that Bama would need all the energy we could give them as quickly as possible. The Tide found itself in the unenviable position of starting off the first rotation on bars and ending the meet on a bye. The gymnasts and coaches most definitely don't like to be off the competition floor during the last rotation with the meet on the line. However, perhaps even more critical is the tendency of the first rotation to lack the excitement - and high scores - of later rotations. This was further complicated by Georgia, for all intents and purposes, competing at home in the Arena at the Gwinnett Center after drawing a first round bye and Olympic rotation.

The University of Alabama gymnastics Medalist club 2004 Awards Banquet will be Saturday, April 24th 2004 at 7:00 p.m. at the Bryant Conference Center-Sellers Auditorium-Tuscaloosa Alabama. All Medalist club membership will be contacted via phone from a Medalist club board member for reservations. For additional information contact Randy Howell at 556-2108

We've got a new slide show and a photo album for the SEC Championship

• Slide Show: SEC Championship
• Photo Album: SEC Championship

Here are a few of the Photos:
(Click on a thumbnail to view a full size picture)

56 kb 01. Rachael sprints to a dismount in W-U

45 kb 02. Alexis takes a spin on beam

21 kb 03. Stephanie and Jeana cast a spell on floor...