Here’s another one of the routines from the OU-TWU meet that I was really impressed by. It’s freshman Madison Mooring on beam! Madison just joined the team in December after graduating high school early (she did a good interview with us HERE explaining a little more about that decision) and I think she’s transitioned beautifully! Her performances were confident, calm, and steady, a great trait for NCAA gym! Madison can tumble on that beam, in warmup I watched her from the end of the beam and it’s a cool angle, it’s easy to tell if the gymnast’s are off at all, but she looked great! Especially loved the stick, such a great way to put an exclamation mark on the routine! Keep an eye on her to break into the AA later in the season, she told us she hopes to start training bars again soon.
Another routine from the OU-TWU meet on Sunday - Sara Stone’s exhibition on beam. There is an awful lot of flicky wrists going on in this routine but the rest of the content makes it a great routine! Steady bhs-bhs-layout, and a very huge/awesome back handspring swingdown that was almost more of a back tuck, that’s how huge her set was! Loved it, added some cool flair to the routine. And a terrific stuck double twist to finish! I’d put this routine in the lineup if it was my team, but then again, I don’t know who you would swap her for, because the whole lineup is very strong! Sara got a 9.9 for this routine, well deserved I think!
Here’s one of the OU routines I liked from the meet Sunday - Kayla Nowak on floor. Beautifully controlled double pike, one and a half to front full, also very pretty, and finished up with a front one and a half. I think Kayla has very pretty form in her tumbling, and while some people may not like the choreography (I’m looking at you Spanny!), I think it’s great for Kayla, it suits her well!
I also really liked Megan Ferguson’s energetic routine, she starts off with a huge triple, which is great! You don’t see too many of those from the girls!
Oklahoma at Texas Women’s Coverage
Hi everyone! Myself and Rodney (also from Gymnastike) went up to Denton, TX today to film the OU at Texas Women’s meet.
I thought I’d post a link to the coverage here, as well as a couple routines I liked, which I’ll embed here as the week goes on.
I was really impressed by freshman Madison Mooring, she just graduated high school in December and is making a huge splash right now. The 9.95 she got on beam today will probably only do great things for her! Taylor Spears also had another great beam routine, I think she’s ranked #1 in the country! Sara Stone did an exhibition that was very nice, she had a huge back handspring swingdown that was almost more of a back tuck….it was really cool!
I also really liked the floor routines, too. The Sooners seemed a little tired, but they are coming off a meet Friday night, so that’s not too surprising. The vault and bar rotations went well, but my suggestions are to watch the beam and floor rotations :)
Oklahoma’s Kayla Nowak (sophomore) on beam last weekend vs Arkansas. It would be nice to see a dismount, but that’s what you get when it’s a gymnast and not gymnastike filming the meets! Teehee….I’ll get up there for a meet later this season :) I really like Kayla’s routine, though. It’s nice, not quite as cookie cutter as some routines we see in NCAA. Go Kayla, and Boomer Sooner!! (leave a comment now that i enabled them!!)
Get ready for NCAA season to start! Here’s one of my favorite routines from last year, it’s Oklahoma’s Brie Olson on uneven bars. Hit handstands all over the place and a stuck full twisting double layout to cap it all off!
Love the leo, love the gymnast, love the school…..uh ok, I pretty much just love everything about this! Boomer Sooner!
(via here-right-now)
Hello!
I hope you’re all enjoying these videos I’ve been posting over the last few days. I am in Norman, Oklahoma visiting some friends (this is where I graduated from college!) and filming some stuff at the OU gym for gymnastike.org, so I took advantage of one of Tumblr’s awesome features - you can set posts to automatically post themselves at the time you choose! Pretty cool, huh? I could have just not said anything at all about being gone, lucky for you all I am feeling nice and honest! :P I’ll be back home in Dallas on Monday afternoon, the 12th, so perhaps we’ll get some news updates then. Maybe some CoverGirl Classic news? I know it’s coming up soon!
2010 NCAA’s Event Finals Results!
A couple surprises perhaps. I bet tonight was awesome to watch!
Vault
- Vanessa Zamarripa - UCLA - 9.925
- Susan Jackson - LSU - 9.8938
- Mandi Rodriguez - Oregon State - 9.8438
Uneven Bars
1. Carly Janiga - Stanford - 9.9375
2. Summer Hubbard - LSU - 9.925
2. Hollie Vise - Oklahoma - 9.925
Balance Beam
1. Susan Jackson - LSU - 9.9625
2. Carly Janiga - Stanford - 9.8875
2. Courtney McCool - Georgia - 9.8875
Floor Exercise
1. Brittani McCullough - UCLA - 9.9375
2. Hollie Vise - Oklahoma - 9.900
2. Sarah Shire - Missouri - 9.900
2. Brandi Personett - Penn State - 9.900
So now what do we look forward to….VISAs?? European Championships was this weekend as well, but a damper was put on it thanks to that dang Icelandic volcano preventing some teams from traveling to the meet.
Super Six Results & Thoughts!!
EXCITING NEWS, the Super Six competition is over and the results are in!
- UCLA 197.725
- Oklahoma 197.25
- Alabama 197.225
- Stanford 197.100
- Florida 197.000
- Utah 196.225
HERE is a link for full results from Friday’s Super Six Team Finals. I think it is SO CRAZY that 5 out of the top 6 teams broke 197, and places 2-5 are verrrry close! I wish I could have seen the meet! Sadly I was at work, which is where I will be during event finals too, booo.
HERE is a link to the live video for Event Finals which begin at 6 pm Eastern on Saturday.
While I’m happy for all the teams, I’m especially excited for Oklahoma. Mainly I’m biased since I go to school at OU but it’s really thrilling for them that they did so well this year. This is the first year that they have EVER reached the Super Six, and to top that off they went and got second place! They were even leading at one point! So you know what? Hats off to you Oklahoma! I think they’ve set a wonderful standard for next season and I can’t wait to see how the remaining gymnasts (ie: not graduating) embrace their new positions as one of the “top dogs” of NCAA gym! Very sad to see the seniors go, this was a batch of lovely and talented gymnasts: Oklahoma City’s own Kristin Smith, lovely and expressive on floor and beam; World medalist Hollie Vise, who turned out to be quite the All Arounder in her last season as a Sooner; Mary Mantle, the vaulting powerhouse out of Colorado; Jackie Flanery, always the showman on floor and a contributor on every event through her time at OU; and lastly Julie Kramer, the transfer student who was unlucky with injuries and never got to compete, but always stood by her teammates offering support.
KJ Kindler is certainly going to need to replace Hollie and Kristin’s beam scores as well as Jackie and Kristin’s (and even Hollie’s) floor scores. I suspect Candace Cindell will step in and take one of the beam spots. Melanie Root and Brie Olson are also strong on beam. KJ’s got a talented crop of freshmen from this year (Nowak, Neubauer, Olson, Ramaswami), and I’m sure she’ll now be flooded with interested recruits after their strong showing at NCAA’s!
Sorry for all the OU ooey gooeyness, can you tell I like this team? I really, really just love that they shook up the rankings this year. It is good, I think, for NCAA gymnastics, for a team like OU to come out and say “this is who we are, we’re here now and we aren’t going anywhere!”, I had really hoped that a “new” team would win NCAA’s than one of the usual suspects, but 2nd place will do just fine :)
Congrats UCLA! Job well done :)
Presten Ellsworth, former Nebraska recruit, has now signed with the University of Oklahoma and will join them for the 2011 season. Apparently, Nebraska mailed him the paperwork a day late, so he decided to switch to Oklahoma. Ellsworth, an Allen, TX native, trains at WOGA and is coached by Sergei Pakanich. He is a former US Junior National Team member and placed 3rd on the Floor Exercise at the 2009 JO National Championships.
I had heard murmurings about this move late last year, but had not heard anything official until it was reported earlier this week by Stick It Media and confirmed to me today by Oklahoma assistant coach Daniel Furney.
