April 2, 2006
Day one
We started off the three-day trip with the annual bowling tournament. During this tournament each gymnast is paired off with a teammate or staff member to play Mizzou gymnastics' version of bowling. Normally when you bowl, each person gets to bowl twice per frame. Well, in our version each person only gets to bowl once per frame. On top of only getting to bowl once we did not get to bowl the traditional way. Each frame, Kira made up a different way we could hurl the bowling ball down the lane. We had to bowl with our eyes closed, hold hands with our teammate, and bowl with our opposite hand along with seven other crazy ways.
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Day two
Ahh meet day, the butterfly started to fly in our stomach and the smell of aerosol hairspray was in the air. We all woke up early for the amazing breakfast that the hotel offers. It was an assortment of pancakes, waffles, omelets, and other staples. After a hearty meal we were off to the mall to spend the money we were just given as per diem for spring break the following week. The mall we went too was really good with stores that I usually love; however I did not find anything that was worth buying. It was probably better that way, because eating the next week is more important than a new pair of shoes.
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That night the meet went well. We did not hit 24 for 24 but we did have some people that had some great performances. We started out on beam where the girls did great. Even after an unusual mistake the girls held it together and put together a great first rotation. Bunny, our anchor on beam, hit another spectacular routine, which tied her for third place. We then went to floor where we were a little rocky with our landings. After floor we picked up the pace and had an unbelievable vault rotation and tied our third highest score of the season with a 49.025. To my surprise, Adrianne and I tied for sixth place. Using the momentum we built on vault, we went to the uneven bars with a fire in our belts. We had a good rotation but the scores on this event had been low all evening so our scores did not reflect the performances. Jodie ended our meet with a beautiful bar routine that earned her a fifth place medal.
Before the awards ceremony the Big XII Conference recognized all the seniors. It was a nice gesture for all of our hard work. They forgot to announce my name when they announced Jodie and Bunny so they gave me extra roses to make up for the mistake. The Big XII also gave each of us a huge poster of ourselves doing gymnastics (Mizzou's were the best because they were action shots, wink wink). After the meet was over, the team along with parents and boosters went to Applebees. My fiancé Brandon showed up outside the restaurant with our dog Dusty. Dusty was a big hit among my teammates because it was the first time any of them had met Dusty since we adopted him from the humane society. At dinner we all had a good time catching up with everyone and relaxing. After dinner it was nice to get some sleep for our early wakeup call in the morning.
Day three
YAY we are going home....boo we had to wake up really early to get on the bus. On the way home I think I was awake for maybe one hour of the five-hour trip back to Columbia, Mo. I was so exhausted from the long week and I think everyone on the team would agree with me that we were glad to be home.
p.s. I hope everyone can make it to regionals in Athens, Ga., this Saturday, April 8th.
GO TIGERS!!!