Gymnastics Ready to Go at NCAA Championships
4/23/2008 12:00:00 AM | Gymnastics
April 23, 2008
ATHENS, Ga. - The Alabama Gymnastics team worked out for just under two hours this morning here in Stegeman Coliseum on the NCAA Championships' practice day, adjusting to the equipment and the arena.
The Crimson Tide, at its 26th consecutive NCAA Championship after having won its 23rd NCAA regional title, also took care of its media obligations, including the championship press conference and sitting down for interviews with CBS, which will air the championships on a tape delayed basis May 10th at 2 p.m. CT.
"We had a good day," Alabama head coach Sarah Patterson said. "We came in and adjusted the equipment and the podium and are ready to get started tomorrow afternoon. I think in that respect the teams in our conference have an advantage in that we've already competed on a podium. I give the Southeastern Conference office and our institutions a lot of credit for going the extra mile and having our conference championships on the podium. It really helps when we get to nationals."
Alabama will compete in tomorrow's first session as the No. 6 seed. The afternoon session, which gets underway at noon CT, is virtually a mini-SEC Championships with the Tide, Florida, LSU and Arkansas all competing in the together along with Oklahoma and Oregon State.
The other SEC school, the championships' host and the three-time defending champion Georgia Bulldogs will welcome Utah, UCLA, Michigan, Stanford and Denver to Thursday's evening session which starts at 6 p.m. CT.
The top three teams from each of Thursday's prelim sessions will advance to the NCAA Super Six Team Final on Friday starting at 5 p.m. CT. Alabama has finished among the top six nationally 24 times since first making the NCAA Championships in 1983.
The Tide has posted four 197-plus scores in a row over the last month and a half of the season, including a 197.325 at the SEC Championships where the Tide finished just .025 behind No. 1 ranked Georgia. Senior Kaitlin White told the assembled media at today's press conference that Alabama's surge has much to do with team chemistry that really clicked into place after the team's early March West Coast trip, where the Tide had seven falls in two meets.
"We had to sit down and talk about a lot of things, change our goals, and write new ones down," White said. "I love the team that we have. We get along inside the gym and out of it, and I am excited."
Players Mentioned
