Jan. 21, 2009

Hello Tiger fans :)

After getting a taste of sunshine in Tempe, Arizona, is was very difficult to come back to the winter weather that Columbia has to offer. Although the trip home might have been a depressing one, we were all excited about our domination against the Sun Devils of Arizona State. After getting to a rough start, we were able to pull through on the other three events to solidify the win.

We started the meet on bars, and came out very eager to show the judges how aggressive we can be with our routines. Although we had some uncommon mistakes, the overall impression of many routines was better than our previous meet at Iowa State. After bars, we knew we had a lot of slack to pick up on the other three events, but it was not over for us. The frustration from bars was turned into determination. We were not going to be beat by the Sun Devils! That being said, the vault lineup came out with a bang, throwing beautiful yurchenko fulls and handspring front pike halves. We carried our momentum from vault onto the floor, opening and finishing with solid routines. The last couple of weeks Amy has been really stressing how important our presentation and dance series are to completing an awesome routine. Our work on the tiny details really showed itself Friday night, and the audience seemed to be very engaged in every performance. Beam was the final event, and we really had to stay focused on hitting each routine to come out on top. The meet is not over until the last girl finishes, so tuning in on getting every extra tenth was crucial. After our last beam routine, we were all so proud to have made a huge comeback from our first event, allowing us to pull ahead of ASU. Not only did we solidify our second consecutive win of the season, we also showed the gymnastics community that Mizzou gymnastics means business :)

This week, school is starting up and we are back in the weight room for extra cardio and lifting. It will be hard to get back into the swing of things at first, but we will all be on our game for Friday night! Pink Out is such a fun meet, and we are all excited to wear our new pink leos and compete against Nebraska!

GO TIGERS

* LAP