Dec. 13, 2010
What¡¦s up Tiger fans!?
My name is Katelyn Trevino, and I¡¦m a freshman on the Mizzou gymnastics team this year. Our season has finally started up, and I can¡¦t believe it!! It seems like it was just yesterday that all of the other freshmen gymnasts and I, were talking about how much we couldn¡¦t wait for it to get here! Last Friday we had our annual Black & Gold Intrasquad where we split the team into two different groups and compete against each other in a ¡§practice¡¨ competition. It¡¦s just a way to help all of us get back into competition mode. I didn¡¦t compete in this one, because I¡¦m still coming back from an ACL surgery I had in July, but I was still there for my team 110%, and I must say they did awesome!
We started on vault where we had a great turnout! We had several clean Yurchenko layouts and a big Yurchenko layout full from sophomore Lauren Swankoski. Our big hitter on this event was from our senior Alex Gold, who nailed her front handspring pike 1/2, and put up a big score of 9.875!
On bars, we had a couple of uncommon mistakes here and there, but freshman Mackenzie McGill put out a nice bar routine, hitting almost all of her handstands and Alex Gold also putting out a good bar set with a score of 9.65. Mary Burke was definitely a highlight of this event; with a stuck dismount and hit handstands, she scored a 9.875 for the team!
On Beam, some routines that stood out were Cathryn Aliceaacosta¡¦s, Alex Skinner¡¦s, Lauren Swankoski¡¦s, and Mary Burke¡¦s. Just like bars, there were a couple of silly mistakes made, but what showed the most when those happened, was their ability to recompose themselves and fight hard for the rest of their routine.
Floor was definitely the most successful event of the night. Hitting 7 out of 8 routines, we really ended on a strong note. This was really cool to see our team come back strong from a couple mishaps from earlier events, and put those things in the past. Brittani Price got the crowd pumped up with her routine to music of ¡§Like a G6.¡¨ And Cathryn Aliceaacosta sold her routine to the judges by showing her dance off. Big scores came from Tori Howard and Lauren Swankoski, who both scored a 9.85, and Taylor Medrea getting a 9.7, even after going out of bounds on her first pass. It was definitely a good way to end the meet.
Overall, I would say it was a pretty successful night. I think it made everyone actually realize that season is now HERE, and it gave us strong feedback on what we all need to work on to be even more ready and prepared for competition season.
Next up: CANCUN BABY!! We¡¦re competing against West Virginia, and I know we¡¦re going to give them a show ;) Stay tuned to hear more as our season begins! TTYL mizzou fans fº and GO TIGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!