Falcons At NCAA Regionals
4/15/2003 12:00:00 AM | Women's Gymnastics
April 15, 2003
Air Force women's gymnastics senior team captain Allison Todd competed in the NCAA North Central Regionals at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City this past weekend. Todd finished 12th in the individual all-around and had qualified fifth as an individual all-around competitor and was an individual event alternate on balance beam.
The Following are Air Force head coach Lisa Woody's comments about the competition:
"Allison went four for four at the NCAA Regional Championships this past Saturday in Salt Lake City, Utah. The meet was really exciting with over 6,000 enthusiastic spectators cheering on the host team, the Univ. of Utah, as well as all the other competitors at the meet. Junior Laura Frank was the first alternate in the championship as an all-around competitor, but unfortunately did not get to compete.
Allison rotated with BYU's team and started on beam (a change in the competitive rotation was due to a re-alignment of the teams that were seeded to the regional championship sites). Here are highlights for our NCAA Regionals Championships:
Allison, during the practice session on Friday, had her big toe "caught" on the side of the beam while doing her 1/1 toe turn. No big deal, right? Well, it definitely became a big deal - literally.
The next day at the meet, Allison's toe was obviously really injured- a probable dislocation. As she was getting out of her warm-ups to start warming up on beam I looked down and, gasp, her big toe was about twice its normal size, swollen and completely black and purple. It looked hideous! But Allison said it didn't hurt that bad and never complained about it during the meet whatsoever. I know I would have been a whimpering little baby about it, but you see, that's the difference between Allison and I - she's tough... and I'm a wimp!
Oh, and another great thing with beam- during the competition Allison's hair ribbon came untied and was dangling about two feet in font of her face during her entire beam routine. It was quite humorous but very distracting for Al-Dawg at the same time. But as usual, Allison seemed to manage just fine and had some extra "style and flair" to try and keep the ribbon from getting in her face. We saw the head judge from beam at the airport on Sunday and even she said that Allison had handled the hair ribbon fiasco very well. Allison had a great Beam routine, which is really impressive since it's always tough to start a competition on beam.
Floor- As most of you all know, floor always takes the longest to complete in a meet; the same was true at NCAA Regionals. What was great about this was that Allison had the entire arena full of people watching just her since she was the only competitor left for that rotation! Allison's routine started off almost immediately with an amazing quad toe-turn + tuck jump double series... and the crowd loved it! I've never heard a crowd respond to a "gym series" like that, but since she's the only person that I've ever seen in college gymnastics to complete it, it's definitely deserving! The crowd really got into Al-Dawg's floor routine and started clapping louder and louder along with her increasingly fast-paced music. Allison's score of 9.850 was fourth highest out of the entire meet- way to go Allison!
Vault- Allison hit yet another amazingly awesome layed out Yurchenko with only a small step on the landing. She really flies doing that vault!
Bars- After an extra 20-30 minutes due to a turnbuckle breaking before Stanford could compete on the uneven bars, we finally moved to the last rotation. Allison's warm-up and three-minute touch have certainly been better in the past, so I was somewhat concerned as to how Allison would compete, especially at the end of a long meet! Allison had a great routine and hit everything- her Schapasch, Higgins to two invert giants to her back straddle to handstand and her double flyaway (which as been giving her some trouble lately). Everything was awesome!
Allison finished 12th in the individual all-around, an astounding feat versus some of the best collegiate gymnasts in the country! I'm extremely proud of Allison! Be sure to congratulate her on her NCAA Regional Championships performance!
We had some wonderful supportive fans in the crowd that cheered for Allison during the meet and came down after the meet to congratulate her including the Univ. of Denver fans (two of which are retired Air Force), Derick Moellenbeck (former AFA coach) and a 1961 Academy graduate! All commented on how inspiring and important it was for Allison, Laura and myself to represent AFA and our military in such a positive manner at the championships. You can't ask for a better compliment than that!
And now it's time for the final extravaganza meet of the year... the USAG Collegiate Nationals.
The team leaves Tuesday for Denton, TX, to prepare for what will be a very tough team competition and a test of stamina! It is a very long competition with a lot at stake! Here's what the first day of competition decides: 1-it determines the top four teams that qualify to the team finals the next day 2-it determines the individual all-around winners 3-it determines the top eight competitors who will compete in event finals on the third day of competition
We will leave on Tuesday, April 15 and return Sunday, April 20 (Easter). We will be staying at the host hotel, The Radisson...please see the link below for all the hotel info including the FAX number! http://www.radisson.com/dentontx
Here's the championship schedule: Thursday, April 17 4 p.m. Women's Team Semifinals
Friday, April 18 1 p.m. Men's Team Finals 4 p.m. Women's Team Finals 18 Saturday, April 19 5 p.m. Individual Event Finals (men and women)
We will have tons of family and fans there cheering us on at the championships. Be sure to get all the AFA Ladybird fans sitting together and wearing Air Force blue! Don't forget your signs and banners too!
As always, the team appreciates and looks forward to your supportive faxes while we're on the road, and we hope to receive lots of them!
This is what the team has trained for all year long. Show them that you're thinking about them!
Thank you for your continued support! Go Air Force!"
