Gymnastics Awaits Thursday Preliminaries at NCAA Championships
4/25/2007 12:00:00 AM | Gymnastics
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah ?? The travel that took them across the country is finished. So is the last practice of the season, on the floor of the Huntsman Center here on the University of Utah campus. Even the interviews with CBS and the local and national media that have gathered here to cover the 26th NCAA Gymnastics Championships are over, at least for the moment.
All that is left for the Alabama Crimson Tide is the competition and a shot at a fifth NCAA title.
“It’s great to be at Utah and to compete in our 25th consecutive championship,” Alabama head coach Sarah Patterson said. “Utah is a special place for Alabama; it’s where we competed at our first championship and where we won our first NCAA Championship. To make it to 25 NCAA Championships in a row is something of which we’re very proud. Only the University of Utah has a longer streak. I can tell you to be at the 25th championship is equally as gratifying as it was 25 years ago."
The team title will be decided Friday night when the final six teams compete over a two-plus hour span to see who will wear the crown. Will it be a very young Crimson Tide team that has overcome so much already this season? Will it be Georgia with a three-peat or No. 1 ranked Florida breaking into the exclusive national champions club that includes the Tide, the Dogs, host school Utah and UCLA? Or will it be the Utes on their home floor winning their first title since 1995?
Those are all Friday questions.
On Thursday, the question is who gets to be on the floor the last night with a shot at the title. Alabama is in the afternoon session which goes off at 1 p.m. MDT and features a murderers-row of No. 1 Florida, No. 2 Georgia and the third ranked Tide. It also includes very good squads from Oklahoma, Nebraska and Oregon State.
“There is no room for error, especially when you have the top three ranked teams in the nation in the same session,” Patterson said. “We have to be very good just to advance.”
Alabama used every minute of its practice day to adjust to the equipment and an arena they haven’t competed on since 1999. Freshman Kassi Price, who injured her knee before The NCAA Central Regional Championships two weeks ago warmed up on uneven bars and is available for duty on Thursday. Sophomore Ashley O’Neal, who has been hampered by a knee problem over the last month of the season warmed up on the floor exercise and balance beam after not competing at the regional.
“The practice day went well,” Patterson said. “We adjusted to the equipment and looked good out there today. We’re as ready as we can be for tomorrow.”
A successful practice day answered a few questions for the Tide, giving them more fire-power than they’ve had since the SEC Championships.
Other questions are out there. The answer to who will win the Friday title likely resides in who advances from Thursday afternoon’s session, though no one here is willing to count out the Utes and Bruins from the evening session.
But the Friday drama of who wins has to wait for the Thursday issue of who advances.
