Alabama's Ashley Miles Wins Two Individual NCAA Titles
4/17/2004 12:00:00 AM | Gymnastics
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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.
The NCAA event finals for vault are a little different than the rest of the season where a gymnast does one vault. To determine the individual NCAA title, a gymnast competes two vaults and the average score of those two vaults makes up the final tally. Miles scored a 9.975 on her first vault and a 9.9125 on her second for 9.94375 final score.
Miles, who competed in a team high three events tonight, took sixth place on the uneven bars with a 9.875. Michigan’s Elise Ray won the bars with a 9.975.
After winning the NCAA All-Around title on the first night of competition, senior Jeana Rice came back tonight and took second on the balance beam with a 9.9125, just behind the 9.95 that Arizona State’s Ashley Kelly put up. This was Rice’s third consecutive top-3 finish. She finished second as a sophomore and third last season. A fall from the uneven bars, scoring a 9.2625 and placing her 13th, did nothing to put a damper on the outstanding final NCAA Championships Rice enjoyed. Junior Alexis Brion took fifth on the floor exercise with a 9.8875.
With Rice’s all-around title, decided Thursday during the team preliminaries, and Miles’ vault and floor titles, Alabama’s individual NCAA Championships goes to 17, including five all-around titles.
