Jan. 29, 2008
Friday was filled with excitement and anticipation as we prepared for out biggest meet so far this season. Waking up in the comfort of the Cornhusker hotel, we headed down to breakfast to enjoy some of the best pancakes ever made. After breakfast, we perfected our warm-up dance then headed back to our rooms to relax before getting ready for the meet.
After lunch, we headed to the Devaney Center and to our surprise the gym was not set up. But despite our concern, the gym was finished in time and warm-ups began. Being the away team, we started on bars. I had a rough warm-up to put it lightly, but thanks to my great coaches and teammates, I got everything worked out...or so I thought! The rest of warm-ups on bars and the other events went relatively well and it was competition time.
Glitter and hairspray are two crucial meet day items that every gymnast must have and our team is no exception. In the locker room, sparkles are everywhere from our hair and makeup to our fabulous new leotards and march out jackets. We marched out and the time had come to show everyone how hard we had worked so far this year.
Ashley posted a solid score as lead of on bars and now it was my turn. I struggled through my routine and was disappointed with my performance, but I knew our great bar team could overcome the early missed routine. With one other fall, we didn't have our greatest bar score of the season, but knew we could still post big scores on the other three events. And we did! Going 49 or close to on the other events, we posted our highest team score of the season. Although we didn't beat one of our biggest Big 12 rivals, we left feeling good with our meet.
We still have a few things to work on and for me it is going to be getting comfortable with competing again after being out last season with a torn ACL. We are a team that is contending for nationals this year and we all know that we belong there. Every week we are doing things to get better and stronger and our meets are reflecting that. Our next chance to show everyone how good we are is this Friday at 6:30 at home against Illinois-Chicago. Hope to see you there! Go Tigers!