Jan. 14, 2010
COLUMBIA, Mo. – With the first meet of the season now in the record books, the No. 15 Missouri Tigers (1-0) are heading west to Las Vegas for the Lady Luck Invitational. In Las Vegas, the Tigers will face No. 14 Kentucky (1-0), No. 16 LSU (1-0) and Arizona State (0-0). The quad meet is set to begin at 9 p.m. CST at the South Point Hotel, Casino & Spa.
“We are excited about this meet,” Missouri Head Coach Rob Drass said. “It gives us the opportunity to get out there in front of a large group of people and recruits. I think it is a great test early in the season as well. We are excited about the venue and the quality teams that we will face.”
Missouri is coming off a big first week win against Ohio State, 194.725-190.650, and is now working to improve the finer details on every routine.
“I think we had a good start last week and I was real proud of the way we performed,” Drass said. “We are slowly trying to get the details down now. Give each athlete one major thing to work on this weekend to improve upon last week's performance. If we can do that each meet I think by the end of the season we'll be doing our best gymnastics, and that is our goal.”
The Tigers won three of the events against the Buckeyes, while senior Sarah Shire (Columbia, Mo.) and sophomore Mary Burke (Inverness, Ill.) won two event titles each. Shire took the vault and beam titles and Burke the bars and floor, along with her first collegiate all-around title.
The win moved Missouri up one spot in the national rankings from preseason No. 16 to its current spot at No. 15. The team is ranked No. 12 on vault and bars, No. 13 on beam and No. 17 on floor. Shire is tied for fourth nationally on the beam after putting up the second-highest score in the country last weekend. Burke is tied for ninth in the all-around and tied for seventh on floor. Her success against Ohio State earned her the weekly award of Big 12 Gymnast of the Week. It is the first time the Illinois native has won the award.
Stay tuned to mutigers.com for the latest news and updates from Las Vegas this weekend.
News and Notes
Scouting the Lady Luck Invitational opponents...
Arizona State (0-0): The Lady Luck Invitational will be the first meet of the year for the Sun Devils as they enter their 30th season under the direction of Head Coach John Spini. The team went 4-7 in 2009 and finished fifth at the NCAA South Central Regional. Arizona State received votes in the Pre-Season Coaches Poll that put them at No. 28 entering the season, but is not included in this week's rankings having not competed last week. Junior Mary Atkinson is expected to be a consistent all-around competitor for the Sun Devils this season. Atkinson competed on vault and floor last season and holds career highs of 9.875 (vault), 9.825 (bars) and 9.750 (floor). This is the third time in as many years that the Sun Devils and Tigers have met. Missouri came out on top in both close contests and leads Arizona State all-time 3-1.
No. 14 Kentucky (1-0): The University of Kentucky started off strong in their first meet against Texas Woman's University. The Wildcats posted a 194.850 to best the Pioneers' team score of 187.250. Kentucky vaulted up the national rankings from a preseason No. 27 to their current spot at No. 14, one spot ahead of the Tigers. The team from Lexington, Ky., returns a mostly experienced squad that includes 11 letterwinners from last year's team that finished seventh at the Southeastern Conference Championships. The Wildcats are led by senior Emily Green and proved their depth in the first meet with UK gymnasts sharing the titles in three of the four events. The last time Kentucky and Missouri met was the 2008 NCAA Central Regional where UK finished fifth right behind MU in fourth. The Tigers lead the all-time series 11-1.
No. 16 LSU (1-0): The Tigers of LSU entered the 2010 season with back-to-back NCAA Central Regional titles as well as back-to-back Super Six appearances. LSU started their season off last week against Maryland at home in Baton Rouge, La., and took the win 194.375-190.625. Despite the win the Tigers fell from a preseason No. 6 to No. 16. LSU looks to bounce back at the Lady Luck Invitational with eight-time All-American Susan Jackson. The junior has a large number of accomplishments to her name and is impressive on all four events. Jackson posted a 39.275 against Maryland to win the sixth all-around title of her career and is currently tied for fifth nationally. LSU and Missouri have not seen each other in competition since the 2008 NCAA Central Regional. LSU leads MU all-time 22-5.
Burke named Big 12 Gymnast of the Week
The Big 12 Conference named sophomore Mary Burke Big 12 Gymnast of the Week on Jan. 12. This is the first time Burke has won the weekly Big 12 award. Burke led Missouri to a 194.725-190.650 win against then No. 18 Ohio State, claiming the first all-around title of her collegiate career with a 39.200. She also won the bars (9.825) and floor (9.875) titles. The mark on floor set a new career high for the Illinois native, while her score in the all-around tied her career high set last season. Burke is currently tied for seventh nationally on floor and tied for ninth in the all-around. This is the second time the Big 12 has honored Burke. She was named to the Big 12 Championship Team on vault last year.
MU moves up a spot to No. 15 after first week
After winning its first meet of the season, the Tigers moved up one spot in the national rankings from No. 16 to No. 15. Missouri has now consistently ranked in the top-20 nationally since the middle of the 2007 season. The Tigers rank No. 12 on vault and bars, No. 13 on beam and No. 17 on floor. All four Big 12 teams remained in the top-25 after week one. Oklahoma moved up to No. 2 and Nebraska sits right behind the Sooners at No. 3. Iowa State, Missouri's opponent next week, moved up from No. 23 to No. 21.
Burke and Shire ranked high nationally
After the first week of competition, Mary Burke and Sarah Shire already rank close to the top. Burke is tied for ninth in the all-around after her career-high tying performance of a 39.200. She also is tied for seventh on floor with her opening night career-high 9.875. Shire is tied for fourth on beam after posting the second highest score of the weekend with a 9.875.
Tigers start off season with win
The No. 16 Missouri Tigers took the lead after the first rotation and never looked back as the team posted a season opening 194.725 to best the No. 18 Ohio State Buckeyes' 190.650. Sophomore Mary Burke took her first ever all-around title with a 39.200 to match her career high. Missouri won three of the four events on the night as the Tigers started at home for the first time since 2004. Missouri swept the four event titles with Burke winning bars and floor and senior Sarah Shire with vault and beam. The Tigers also held the top spots in the all-around. Freshman Lauren Swankoski looked outstanding in her first meet as a Tiger as she took second with a 38.775, while senior Danielle Guider garnered third in her first all-around competition with a 38.575.
Freshman Swankoski looks solid in early going
The pressure of competing in the all-around as a freshman could easily be too much to handle so early in a college career. However, Tiger freshman Lauren Swankoski has not appeared to let any of that bother her. The Pennsylvania native posted four solid scores against Ohio State and earned herself second in the all-around in just her first collegiate meet. Her all-around score of a 38.775 was half a point higher than Mary Burke's first all-around score of her freshman season in 2009. Swankoski already ranks No. 29 in the nation as an all-around competitor.
Annual Pink Out meet set for next week
The Tigers will return home to the Hearnes Center Friday, Jan. 22 for the sixth annual Pink Out meet. Missouri will also open conference competition, as the opponent will be Big 12 rival No. 21 Iowa State. All fans are encouraged to wear pink to support breast cancer awareness. Last year, Missouri saw its largest Pink Out crowd as 3,459 pink-wearing fans came out to watch the Tigers. That meet stands as the fourth largest non-Cat Classic crowd in Missouri program history. The first 500 fans through the doors will receive a free Pink Out t-shirt. Admission will be $5 for adults and $3 for children. One dollar of every ticket sold will be donated to the Ellis Fischel Cancer Center for breast cancer research. The meet will begin at 6:30 p.m.