University of Missouri
NCAA Individual Event Finals
Shire Ends Year on Vault
4/18/2009 12:00:00 AM | Gymnastics
April 18, 2009
Lincoln, Neb. - Junior Sarah Shire (Columbia, Mo.) wrapped up the 2009 Mizzou Gymnastics season with an 11th place finish at NCAA Individual Event Championships. Shire notched a combined vault score of 9.5 after suffering a fall on her second vault of the night.
The individual gymnasts had to compete with two vaults under the watchful eye of six judges. Shire's first vault garnered a respectable 9.825. But she was unable to land her second effort of the night, resulting in a 9.2. The junior learned the vault just in the past two weeks in preparation for the Nationals requirements.
LSU senior Ashleigh Clare-Kearney was the winner of the vault national championship with an average of 9.9. Her first vault scored a 9.9875, garnering a handful of perfect 10's from the judges. LSU teammate Susan Jackson followed with a 9.8938, while Georgia's Courtney Kupets finished third, scoring a 9.8563.
But the result came after an extremely successful showing in the preliminary round of the NCAA National Championships, where she took a first-team All-American spot on the vault, the first for Missouri Gymnastics since Alisha Robinson in 2005. Her routine on Thursday garnered a 9.9, ultimately finishing in fourth place for the session, and eighth overall. It was the highest score for a Missouri gymnast on the event at Nationals, tying Robinson's 2005 vault, and was the fifth time this year she has hit or surpassed the 9.9 mark on vault.
Overall in 2009, Shire put together one of the biggest individual efforts the Missouri Gymnastics program has seen. She was named the Southcentral Region's Gymnast of the Year, co-Big 12 Gymnast of the Year and was a six-time Big 12 Gymnast of the Week. She also took the Big 12 all-around, vault and beam titles just one year after being named the 2008 Big 12 Newcomer of the Year. She grabbed ten all-around crowns this year, a Missouri single-season record, on her way to breaking every single career high. Shire leads the team average on three events and in the all-around, and is ranked No. 10 overall (first in Big 12), No. 7 on beam (second in Big 12), No. 11 on vault (first in Big 12), No. 29 on the floor and No. 32 on bars.
Shire's National Finals appearance marks the end of the season for Missouri gymnastics. For more information on the junior and the rest of the Tiger gymnasts, stay with mutigers.com.
