Posted by RM!
on 3/24/2009, 8:04 pm, in reply to "PAC-10 Report #1"
76.115.100.227
Rotation Two – Beavers and Stanford both on a bye and UCLA was on the floor. UCLA was looking good but not great on floor. Routines looked good but they were having issues nailing their tumbling. It was good but not spectacular as we are accustomed from the Bruins. By far the most entertaining of the bunch – Brittney McCollough! Boy, that girl just rocks on floor. Her choreography and presentation was just amazing! I loved it! 9.850 for Britney. She had some problems on her second pass otherwise I think it would have gone higher. But at this point it was Britney who was leading floor with a 9.850. UCLA finished with a 49.000 on floor after one event which put them in second behind Stanford and ahead of our Beavs.
Rotation Three – Beavers to the floor, Stanford went to Bars and UCLA went to a bye. This is our event and with UCLA having the high of 9.850 an opportunity for numerous of our athletes to top the leading score. First up.. Stephanie McGregor who has been solid as the lead off all season. GREAT Start for the Beavers! She just nailed it. Pike front through to a double back pike and double tuck finish both just perfect! Awesome.. but what?! Just a 9.750?! Not sure what it was.. maybe the leaps weren’t high enough or the turns weren’t all the way around, Not sure what the judges saw, but the tumbling was right on. Next up.. How about kera Bolen putting on, no question, the BEST floor performance of her senior season at Pac-10’s! It was AWESOME! Nailed her double back pike perfectly and she hit her 2 ˝ twist second pass.. and finished it off perfectly with her front full front pike.. It was all there and when the 9.8 came up.. I was just like.. no way! It was sooo good! Jereme who has been such a crowd pleaser on floor had a big step back on her double back pike and was very low on her final double tuck. I love the choreography here, but thought we might go down after Kera’s great set.. but somehow the judges saw the samething with another 9.8! We’ll take it, but I didn’t understand how it could have scored the same… I was also watching going back and forth to see how Stanford was doing over on bars… Stanford was hitting nicely on bars and I saw Carly Janiga and Nicole Ouroda of Stanford both take the top bars score thus far with a 9.9. Which meant to me (that Mandi needed a 9.95 on floor to pass Janiga in the all-around and Leslie would need 9.925 on bars to top that bars score). Stanford tallied a 98.625 at the half and were done on bars with Beavers still having three athletes to go. Leslie Mak has just come out so strong.. Her floor routine was just perfect! Just a beautiful presentation of elegance and dance. I love the walk bent at the hip right before her second pass. She nailed her tumbling, double back pike, 2 ˝ twist and 1 ˝ twist to layout front. All was just great! Great job for Leslie and for her efforts she was awarded the top floor score thus far. A 9.875!! Yup, she did her job setting up our big guns on floor Jami and Mandi. This is why OSU is ranked #1 on floor in the pac-10! Jami was up next following a missed beam set and she came back solid as ever. A shuffle back on her double back pike. She really punched her punch front out of her 2 ˝ and almost went out of bounds. Great front full layout finish and a 9.850 for Jami to set up Mandi. Mandi steps on to the floor and I get so nervous and excited for her.. I can totally get into this. What else are you going to get from Mandi but another GORGEOUS set!! She just flirts with the crowd and the judges on this routine! It so awesome. The gymnastics, the dance, the tumbling, she has it all in this routine. HUGE double Arabian which she nailed.. and how about the heighth on her front rudi to shushunova finish! Just incredible!! And a 9.9?! hmmmm. Not sure what they are waiting for.. but still the top floor score thus far which still put her .025 behind Janiga in the all around. Beavers tally a great 49.225 floor total and with 97.950 at the half it was still Stanfords meet at this point.
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