Alabama Gymnastics Celebrates 2004 Season With Year-End Banquet
4/24/2004 12:00:00 AM | Gymnastics
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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.
Miles successfully defended her NCAA Vault title and was co-champion on the floor exercise, becoming the first Tide gymnast win back-to-back titles on the same event since Dana Dobransky (now a volunteer coach for the Tide) on the balance beam in 1992 and 1993. She is also the first Alabama gymnast to win NCAA titles on two different events in the same year. Miles won the SEC floor exercise championship and the NCAA West Region vault and floor exercise titles. Miles earned three All-American honors this season, running her career total up to five.
Junior Alexis Brion was also recognized for earning All-American honors on the vault and the floor exercise. Her career total now stands at five.
Sophomore Larissa Stewart and Shannon Hrozek shared the Lewis Each Courage Award, given to the member of the Alabama gymnastics family that best emulates the example of Each, a former sports writer who covered the gymnastics team in the mid-90s before succumbing to cystic fibrosis.
The gymnastics program’s academic advisor, Cathy Elliott was given the David Dutton Award, awarded to the person or persons who go above and beyond the call of duty for Alabama Gymnastics. Elliott just completed her 10th season working with the program, a stretch that saw Alabama gymnastics average well over a 3.3 grade point average.
The 2004 Alabama Gymnastics team celebrated a national title of another sort Saturday night. The Tide posted the nation’s best attendance figure, averaging 10,281 fans per meet for the season. This marks the second time Alabama has averaged over 10,000 per meet and the second time it has led the nation in average attendance.
Outgoing Medalist Club president Ken Donaldson was also recognized for his exemplary work with the organization over the years and incoming president Russell Moore was presented.
