Two Alabama gymnasts were named to the 2005 ESPN The Magazine University Division Women's Academic All-District IV At-Large Team, selected by members of the College Sports Information Directors of American (CoSIDA). District IV is comprised of colleges and universities in the states of Alabama, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee.

Senior Michelle Reeser was named to the first team, while senior Shannon Hrozek was named second team. Both women come to the team after All-American seasons in the gym.

"Michelle and Shannon had outstanding careers at Alabama, both in the gym and in the classroom, and this honor is a fitting cap to their careers," Alabama head coach Sarah Patterson said. "To have two of our ladies make the at-large team, which encompasses such a wide pool of student-athletes, is really very gratifying."

It's been kind of slow lately, newswise, so we have prepared a nice treat for you. (Thanks to Salto for putting these together!)

• 2005 GymTide Highlight Slideshow

We have a season wrap up and preview from the PBAs

• A Look Back at the 2005 Season, A Peek Forward to 2006

This past season, the Medalist Club was involved with what we believe was a first-time-ever, groundbreaking enterprise: full season, home-and-away broadcast radio and internet-audio coverage of college gymnastics. The person who not only came up with, but also enthusiastically promoted, developed - you might even go so far as to say 'invented' the whole idea - was Chad Anderson, a University of Alabama student and the sports director of the University's award-winning, student-run radio station, WVUA-FM 90.7. Although Chad is a very busy young man (for instance, as I write this he is in College Station, Texas preparing to broadcast Bama softball's Super-Regional games versus Texas A&M), I was recently able to grab enough of his time to ask him a few questions about himself and his radio coverage of Bama gymnastics this past season:

University of Alabama gymnastics signee Melanie Banville followed up a stellar performance at the Summer Olympics by winning the national all-around title Wednesday night at the Canadian National Championships being held in Vancouver on the University of British Columbia campus this week.

Banville took the gold with 36.675 points posting the best score on floor (9.600), second best on vault (9.250) and third best on uneven bars (9.325). She finished nearly half a point better than defending champion Kylie Stone of the Stampede City Club in Calgary.

"I was confident and had a lot of fun out there tonight," Banville told the Vancouver Sun. "I'm excited it turned out this way. I definitely worked for it. This win pumps me up for the individual finals."

University of Alabama gymnastics signee Melanie Banville is in first place after day one of the Canadian National Championships behind held in Vancouver on the University of British Columbia campus.

Banville, a native of Long Sault, Ontario, scored a 36.850 in the all-around to lead the competition. Her score included a 9.5 on both the uneven bars and floor exercise. She will compete in the all-around finals Wednesday night. The scores from the two days of competition are added together to determine the overall winner. Banville will also compete in individual event finals on Saturday.

A member of the 2004 Canadian Olympic team, Banville won the all-around at the Canadian Olympic trials last summer. She was a finalist at the Athens Olympics and took fifth in the all-around at the 2003 Pan-American Games.

We have a new "Chalk Talk" from Coach Patterson:

• Chalk talk - Greetings from the Patterson household!

We've got a photo album and slide show for the 2005 Annual Awards Banquet

• Photo Album: 2005 Annual Awards Banquet
• Slide Show: 2005 Annual Awards Banquet

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

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University of Alabama assistant head gymnastics coach David Patterson underwent successful spinal surgery today to correct a long standing back ailment.

Patterson, who just completed his 27th season at Alabama, had a multi-level lumbar spinal fusion performed at Carraway Hospital in Birmingham. The surgery, performed by Dr. Evan Zeiger, got underway at 1 p.m. and took about four hours.

"The surgery was a success and now we are looking forward to a full recovery," Alabama head coach Sarah Patterson said of her husband's procedure.