Gymnastics Faces Arkansas in Fayetteville Friday
2/16/2007 12:00:00 AM | Gymnastics
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. ?? The No. 5 ranked Alabama Gymnastics team, after competing at home in three of its first four meets this season, is headed to its second road contest in a row this Friday, traveling to Fayetteville, Ark. where they will face No. 15 Arkansas.
The meet, held in Barnhill Arena, gets underway at 7 p.m. It will be the Crimson Tide’s third trip to Fayetteville to face the LadyBacks, which added Gymnastics just five years ago. Coached by Mark and Renee Cook, the LadyBacks made it to the NCAA Championships for the first time last season, a remarkable feat for such a young program.
Coming off its dual meet at Georgia last weekend, Alabama is looking to rebound from its second three-fall balance beam performance of the season.
“I’m glad that we have this opportunity to go back on the road and finish off another meet with the balance beam,” head coach Sarah Patterson said of her beam line-up. “We’re going to do some things differently and we’re going to make some adjustments. This week in practice we put the ladies in a number of pressure situations and I won’t hesitate to change the lineup around as necessary.”
While the Crimson Tide did have problems on the beam in Athens, there were also some bright spots. The three gymnasts that didn’t fall posted career best scores on the apparatus. Against the Dogs, freshman Ricki Lebegern had an outstanding meet, posting a career high 39.350 all-around score.
In the rankings this week, freshman Morgan Dennis is in her fourth week at No. 1 nationally on the floor exercise while fellow rookie Kassi Price is ranked No. 3 in the all-around. The LadyBacks are ranked in the top-20 on all four apparatus as a team.
Overall, Arkansas is almost as young as the Crimson Tide with six freshmen and two sophomores to go with five upperclassmen. Alabama also has six rookies along with five sophomores among its 14 gymnasts.
Alabama returns home to Coleman Coliseum on Friday, Feb. 23 against UNC at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available through the Alabama Ticket Office (205.348.2262) or online at RollTide.com.
