LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - The University of Alabama Gymnastics team put together a great 197.000 score here at the Southeastern Conference Championships, led by an outstanding 39.5 all-around performance by freshman Morgan Dennis.

In a conference where the nation's top four teams reside, that score was good for third place behind No. 1 ranked Florida 's 197.325 and No. 2 Georgia's 197.175. The Gators crown marks the first time since 1989 that a team besides Alabama or the Dogs has won the SEC title.

"I thought we preformed exceptionally well tonight," Alabama head coach Sarah Patterson said. "We were a good team but we weren't perfect, and when you compete against the top two teams in the country you have to be perfect to win."

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - The Alabama Gymnastics teams one weekend off from competition this season came at a good time, giving the Crimson Tide a break between its regular season finale and the Southeastern Conference Championships this Saturday, and head coach Sarah Patterson and her charges put it to good use.

"With such a young team, we have a number of young ladies that have never been through a meet like this," Patterson said. "So we used the week off to prepare them for all that goes on at a collegiate championship meet."

That meant warming up in exactly the time allotted at the championships, picking their starting event out of a hat as well as inserting 'byes' into practice.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - The Alabama Gymnastics team discovered they will start the 2007 Southeastern Conference Championships on a bye before starting competition on the floor exercise after the draw at the event's press luncheon here at the Alltel Arena.

After starting on a bye and then moving to the floor exercise, Alabama will move to another bye, then vault followed by the third bye before finishing off the night on the uneven bars and balance beam.

The team will practice later this afternoon and the competition is Saturday starting at 6 p.m. CT. The Crimson Tide's radio broadcast of the championships will be on WVUA 90.7-FM in Tuscaloosa and can be heard online at www.thecapstone.ua.edu. A link to live scores can be found on www.gymtide.com and the meet will be televised on a tape delayed basis on Fox Sports South Saturday, April 7 at 6 p.m. CT.

Your Medalist Club Parking Passes will be honored for preferred parking at the NCAA Regionals to be held at Coleman Coliseum on April 14th. If you did not purchase a parking pass at the beginning of the season, a limited number of passes are available for $5/ea, until they're all sold. These passes are only valid for this last meet of the season. If you'd like to purchase a parking pass, send an e-mail to pooh at gymtide.com and a board member will contact you to complete the transaction.

The Alabama Crimson Tide (197.375) and the Auburn Tigers (195.250) duked it out again in Beard-Eaves Coliseum this past Friday Night on the Plains of Auburn University before a nice crowd of approximately 5000, which included a large contingent of travelling Tide fans.  Bama posted their second highest team score of the season and not only improved their RQS but also solidified their 3rd Place national ranking, just behind Florida (#1) and Georgia (#2). Freshman Morgan Dennis (39.525), junior Terin Humphrey (39.500) and freshman Ricki Lebegern (39.475) continued to flex their muscle in the all-around while sophomore Brittany Magee scored big once again on the balance beam (9.90) for the second week in a row, tying Humphrey for top honors on this event.  Sophomores Cassie Martin (9.85 on bars) and Ashley O'Neal (9.85 on balance beam) and junior Kaitlin White (9.85 on vault) also helped pace the team to victory with strong performances of their own.  Let's head to more of the highlights

AUBURN, Ala. - The Alabama Gymnastics team came into tonight's meet at Auburn looking for a good road score to solidify its national ranking and came away with its second highest score of the season, beating the Tigers 197.375-195.250.

It was the last meet of the regular season for Alabama and gave the Tide its second highest score of the season and fifth mark of 197 or better this season. It was also Alabama's third 197 score in a row.

"Our ladies did exactly what we asked them to do tonight," Alabama head coach Sarah Patterson said. "We told them that we wanted to go into the postseason on a high note, knowing that we were peaking. We were a little sluggish and started a little slow, and have been working through some illness, but I thought overall they responded to our challenge and did exactly what we asked them to do."

The Alabama Crimson Tide (197.225) went 23 of 24 routines to defeat the UCLA Bruins(196.475) in Coleman Coliseum on Friday March 9, 2007, closing out the home regular season meets.   Bama saw the successful return of freshman Kassi Price to the all around while junior Terin Humphrey took a break on three events to recover from a touch of the flu. Senior Erin Rightley completed a strong exhibition on the balance beam, indicating that she is ready to return to the line-up on this event if the coaches tap her.  The Tide moved up to a #3 ranking in the nation and remain #1 in the Central Region. Without further ado...[ More...]

We have a Photo album (and a slide show) for the 2007 TideTykes and Teens Jamboree.

• Photo Album: 2007 TideTykes and Teens Jamboree
• Slide Show: 2007 TideTykes and Teens Jamboree

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

163880 bytes 01 Cassie Martin preps Kinley for Tide Tykes

155750 bytes 02 Courtney Priess keeps step

162671 bytes 03 after some initial confusion

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - It was a night for the young and old alike to take a bow as the Alabama Gymnastics team used a big night on all four events to beat the UCLA Bruins 197.225-196.475.

The evening started off with a heartfelt tribute to the Crimson Tide's lone senior Erin Rightley and finished off with a huge, highflying, raise the roof 9.95 routine from rookie Morgan Dennis on the floor exercise that had everyone of the 10,045 fans in attendance roaring to their feet.

In between, Alabama scored 49-plus on all four apparatus, including better than 49.3 on the vault, balance beam and floor exercise.

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

• A Night to Remember......

The Alabama Crimson Tide (197.250) went 24 of 24 routines to defeat the LSU Bengal Tigers (196.875) in Coleman Coliseum last Friday, starting off with an explosive vault performance, led by freshman Ricki Lebegern's 9.925 and Morgan Dennis' 9.90.  Three other gymnasts went 9.875 (Brittany Magee, Ashley O'Neal and Terin Humphrey) on this event. The Tide ran into some stingy judging on the uneven bars despite several superior routines, including a 9.825 effort from an ailing Kassi Price and a 9.90 from Humphrey who continues to wow the fans with her Khorkina and hop full elements .  Bama also went 6 for 6 on the balance beam (8 for 8 counting two exhibitions by Erin Rightley and Amanda Montgomery) and closed out with another winning effort on the floor exercise.  The Tide retained their #4 ranking in the nation and #1 in the Central Region.[ More...]

Over the past couple of weeks, we have been setting up our brand spanking new board... just for you! And now it's ready!

But don't panic. We are not closing the current message board yet. We are going to run both boards for a while giving folks a chance to get used to the idea and also to give us a chance to work out any bugs and errors!

As an introduction, here is an explaination some of the What, Why, When, Where, How of the new Message Board:

• A Quick Introduction to the New GymTide.com Message Board

"With the GymTide struggling at times this season with 'finishing' meets, Friday night's 197.250-196.875 victory over the LSU Tigers turned out to be just what the doctor ordered: a big win under pressure."

"Also of significance for Bama's post-season aspirations was freshman Morgan Dennis' tie for first place in the individual all-around competition. In so doing, Morgan became the fourth Tide gymnast to win an all-around this season (the others being Terin Humphrey, Kassi Price, and Ricki Lebegern). Without consulting the record books, I feel fairly confident in saying that having as many as four, different all-around winners in a season is a rare occurrence for Alabama Gymnastics, at least over the last few years."

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The Alabama Gymnastics team posted its third 197 or better score of the season on the way to beating LSU 197.250-196.925 in front of 10,113 fans here tonight in Coleman Coliseum.

"I'm just pleased that we are moving forward in a lot of different areas," Alabama head coach Sarah Patterson. "It's exciting to see us do so well and be able to win and know there were a lot of different areas that we can be better on. We were better on vaulting tonight and we were better on balance beam. We weren't our best on the floor exercise, we can be better there. Hopefully this week in practice we can use that to help us move forward a little bit. I don't expect us to be perfect until the end. That's what you want to do. You want to build to the end."

It was a night of season and career highs for both teams. Alabama posted its best vault score of the season and second best balance beam score. LSU posted its season best scores on three of the four apparatus. Freshman Morgan Dennis won the all- around with a 39.500 while junior Terin Humphrey was third with a 39.475 and freshman Ricki Lebegern was fourth with a career high 39.450. Lebegern has been 39.350 or higher in the all-around each of the last four meets.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - After stepping out of conference last weekend, the No. 4 ranked Alabama Gymnastics team steps back in against Southeastern Conference rival LSU Friday night in Coleman Coliseum.

"It will be another great, hard-fought meet, yet another Friday night in the SEC where the meet will still be in limbo through the last rotation," Alabama head coach Sarah Patterson said. "LSU is one of our longest standing rivals and I know that it's going to come down to our last two competitors on the floor exercise and their last two on beam for the win."

The Tigers are ranked No. 8 in the latest national rankings and took No. 1 ranked Florida down to the wire last weekend before falling by a mere fraction of a point. Alabama faced UNC-Chapel Hill last Friday, easily bettering their ACC foe.

The Alabama Crimson Tide grabbed control from the opening two events and never relinquished its lead over the baby blue of North Carolina despite having to count a fall on the balance beam (Brittany Magee 9.275) in the final team total.  The Tide went 22 of 24 routines for the night, including three routines of 9.90 or higher on the uneven bars (Cassie Martin, Terin Humphrey and Kassi Price), two on the floor exercise (Humphrey and Morgan Dennis) and one on vault (Humphrey). Junior Terin Humphrey won the all-around with a career high of 39.575 with freshman Ricki Lebegern coming in for the third consecutive week at 39.350.. Simply too much great gymnastics for a poor soul to handle!   To the highlights we go...[ More...]