Alabama
Arkansas
Gymnastics Advances to the NCAA Super Six Team Finals
4/22/2010 12:00:00 AM | Gymnastics
April 22, 2010
GAINESVILLE, Fla. - The No. 3 seeded Alabama Gymnastics team won its semifinals session of the NCAA Championships Thursday night with a 196.850 here in the Stephen C. O'Connell Center, advancing to NCAA Super Six Team Final in the process.
Joining the Crimson Tide in the Super Six from the second semifinal is host-team and No. 2 seed Florida, which posted a 196.775 to take second, and No. 6 Stanford, which was third with a 196.300.
"I'm so proud of our team," UA head coach Sarah Patterson said. "Our goal at the beginning of every season is to be on the floor on the last night for a chance to win the championship. Our team has put ourselves in that position and that's all I can ask from them."
Alabama was led by sophomore Geralen Stack-Eaton, who scored a 39.500 in the all-around, and seniors Ricki Lebegen and Morgan Dennis, who both scored 39.375 in the all-around.
"I'm really excited and proud of our team for advancing," Dennis said. "The way we performed tonight, we had a few mistakes, but those are just some little things we have to clean up for tomorrow. I think we're ready to go and I'm really excited."
The Tide posted the highest score of the meet on both the uneven bars (49.350) and the balance beam (49.225) and was comfortably in the lead after five rotations, but made things interesting after two gymnasts went out of bounds on the floor exercise, the Tide's last event.
Despite those mistakes, Alabama still managed a 48.95 on the floor while Florida, which had struggles of its own early in the meet, posted a meet-high 49.425 to finish the night on the vault, cutting the Tide's final margin of victory down to .075.
"The competition out there was great; there were a lot of nerves from all the athletes on all the teams," Patterson said.
Alabama, Florida and Stanford will be joined in Friday night's championship session by No. 1 seeded UCLA, No. 5 Utah and No. 4 Oklahoma, which all advanced from the first semifinals earlier Thursday. The team finals get underway at 6 p.m. ET
"Congratulations to the teams that have advanced because it is not easy to do," Patterson said.
By advancing to the Super Six, Alabama is guaranteed its 26th top-six NCAA finish and will have a chance to win its fifth NCAA Championship.
Players Mentioned
