March 22, 2007
Last weekend we competed against the 11th ranked University of Michigan, Wolverines. I know a lot of the girls were excited to see new competition as our team has not been to Michigan for a meet in the last four years. We started our trip by busing to the St. Louis Airport to find out our plane was delayed an hour. After waiting for what seemed like eternity, maybe because I was sitting next to Ashley (just kidding!!!), we finally boarded the plane. Yea, for direct flights!! Once we arrived in Detroit, we bused to Ann Arbor where we ate dinner and went to our hotel.
The next morning we ate breakfast at the hotel and then went to the mall for our team activity. Sorry to the girls on our team who had to take proctored tests because the mall was so sweet, it was huge!!! Let's just say it kept us entertained for a while. Rob went to Panera and picked us up lunch so we ate at the hotel and were able to relax until we left for the meet around 4:15 p.m. I was excited to get to the arena to see an old teammate of mine and Katie Kluga's that is on Michigan's team.
Next was warm up. Well girls...the only thing I have to say about this is that it was rushed. Usually for our warm up, we get 30 minutes to stretch, 15 minutes per event warm up, two or three minutes in between each event warm up to put our grips on, fix mats, or whatever we need to do, and 20 minutes to get dressed for the meet. Well, we didn't realize that Michigan uses a rolling clock. This meant that there was no two or three minute period in between each warm up event to recuperate from the last event. We only had 15 minutes to get dressed for the meet and our locker room was far, far away (it takes a long time to put all that glitter on!). Let's just say things were a bit rushed. However, our team was able to leave the warm up period behind us and bang out an incredible meet.
We started on bars and nailed all of our sets. Next we headed over to vault, in which we rocked once again. I'm so proud of D (Danielle Guider) for sticking her vault!!! Floor was amazing as well. Props to Julie Abaray for getting a 9.90 and Adrianne Perry for getting a 9.925. And beam was once again solid. I was very excited to see everyone be aggressive on beam since it was our last rotation. We ended up winning the meet 196.675 to 196.10. Michigan had to count a fall (.5 tenths); however, it was exciting to know that even if they would not have fallen we still would have won.
The next day of traveling was long. We arrived what seemed to be way too early in the morning for our flight. I think we just went past security so fast that we got to the gate very early. After waiting a couple of hours, we boarded our plane back to St. Louis. Everyone was happy to be home; however, our bus was an hour and a half late because it was stuck in traffic. No worries though. We ate lunch and chilled in the airport for a little bit. Once the bus came, I know Rob was real excited (sarcastic) to hear that everyone wanted to watch Borat (the best movie in the world!!!).
Next weekend we travel to Arkansas to compete against the 12th ranked Razorbacks. We leave on Thursday the 22nd and compete on Friday the 23rd. Can't wait!! And in two weeks on March 31st, we are hosting Big 12's at home!!
Go tigers!!!
Amanda