Anne Phillipslive blogged the apparatus finals. She’s a very astute observer. Her site Gymnastike is the best single source of information on NCAA Championships 2009.
The big story of the night, however, once again was …
Georgia’s Courtney Kupets ended her distinguished college career with a record-setting performance on the final night of the NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships.
Kupets added individual titles in the uneven bars, floor exercise and balance beam on Saturday to the all-around championship she won two days earlier. Her four titles tied the record for a single national meet.
She ended her career with a record nine individual titles, beating the mark of eight by Kentucky’s Jenny Hansen in 1993-95.
Kupets accomplished the feat in three national meets. She missed last year’s because of an Achilles’ tendon injury.
Kupets won the balance beam (9.9875) and uneven bars (9.95) and tied for first with LSU’s Ashleigh Clare-Kearney in the floor exercise (9.95).
So much attention goes to Georgia, Alabama, Utah and the other BIG NAME schools, that great gymnasts in the rest-of-the-NCAA are overshadowed.
For example, I’d never heard of Elise Wheeler from Southern Utah. Nor met her great coaches until this year. (Watch an interview with Scott Bauman, Southern Utah Head Coach.)
Elise is the first gymnast in SUU history to collect All-American accolades, qualifying to 2 Finals.
… “This was just an amazing performance tonight,” head coach Scott Bauman said following the meet. “To qualify for one event was a big deal, but to qualify for two is absolutely huge! This is an incredible night for Elise and an incredible night for our program.” …
With much speculation as to what 3 time NCAA Gymnastics Champion Courtney Kupets will do next year … whatever happened to her big sister, Ashley Kupets?
… Former UGA gymnast and USA National Team Member, Ashley Kupets is done with her competitive gymnastics career, but has found a way to take all her training and skills to a new level as a member of the cast of La Reve at the Wynn Theater in Las Vegas.
Ashley, the older sister of the newly crowned 2009 NCAA All Around Gymnastics champion Courtney Kupets, wasn’t sure what to do job-wise when she graduated from UGA. Even with a degree in graphic design, she just felt the need to act or perform – something she had been doing since she was a little girl in the gymnastics arena. …
Congratulations to #1 ranked Stanford who put it together when it counted after “strangling” this meet last year at home.
This article has great quotes from Stanford Head Coach Thom Glielmi.
It was supposed to be close. It was supposed to be a fight to the finish. And, while the winner was in question throughout the final rotation, when the dust settled, the Stanford Cardinal sat atop the leader board by a sizeable margin—a full 1.3 ahead of surprise second-place Michigan (362.8 to 361.5). …
Stanford’s unique audience participation wasn’t the only thing that made the night interesting. While the Stanford-Oklahoma rematch was supposed to be the storyline, with Illinois considered the dark horse, someone forgot to tell Michigan and Cal.
Both teams put together outstanding nights—Cal lead the field by more than a point heading into the sixth rotation—but it was Michigan who came out of seemingly nowhere to push past a shocked Oklahoma squad for second. …
Performances tonight were much better than preliminaries, in general. The girls looked more relaxed.
Qualifying for the Super 6 Team final is the biggest pressure cooker of all. (Ask Oregon, Stanford, UCLA and the other 3 teams that did not make it in the preliminary round yesterday.)
It’s amazing Florida was able to finish 4th despite all their injuries to key gymnasts. And Arkansas can be very, very proud of what they’ve done this year.
It was a perfect start and finish for Courtney Kupets, and a perfect ending to Suzanne Yoculan’s 26-year career at Georgia.
The Gym Dogs sent out their retiring coach with a fifth straight national title and record 10th overall at the NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships on Friday night.
Kupets, who won her third all-around title in four years on Thursday, opened the evening with a 10 on the uneven bars and wrapped up her collegiate career with a 10 on the vault. …
Georgia finished with a four-event score of 197.825, easily beating the 197.450 it posted at last year’s national meet. Alabama, which upset Georgia at the Southeastern Conference meet, was runner-up with 197.575. Utah, runner-up the last three years, was third with 197.425.
Florida (196.725), Arkansas (196.475) and LSU (196.375) followed as the SEC sent five of its seven gymnastics programs to the Super Six, an unprecedented feat for a conference.
… Featuring five teams from the SEC, the women’s championship in Lincoln, Nebraska will also feature Utah, who won a tiebreaker against UCLA in the second session to advance. Led by second-overall finished Kristina Baskett, with an all-around of 39.60, Utah won an individual tiebreaker over UCLA, who also scored 196.625 overall. The final teams joining the Utes include Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida and LSU. …
Kylie, from Calgary, Canada, had a fantastic season. But her team did not qualify for Championships … even though they are hosting.
She was the only Husker to qualify to the meet, in the all-around.
… Junior Kylie Stone, Nebraska’s lone qualifier for the NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships, injured her calf four days ago. She was supposed to compete as an all-arounder, but decided Thursday that she would only be able to compete in the uneven bars.
“Yesterday at practice, I couldn’t really do anything,†Stone said. “My calf was still hurting to run, well, to walk, actually. I figured if you can’t run, you can’t really do anything else.â€
Despite the injury, Stone was able to give Huskers fans a show. She finished tied for seventh with a 9.85 score. …
But the defending NCAA 2008 champion is recovering from a sprained toe he suffered less than two weeks ago at the Big Ten Championship.
On Wednesday night, Penn State’s Casey Sandy won the Nissen-Emery Award, given annually to the top senior.
“It is a great honor for Casey,” Penn State head coach Randy Jepson said. “There are so many complimentary things I can say about him but there is one thing that epitomizes his success at Penn State. He is the only athlete I have ever had who has never uttered a complaint or spoke an ill word about anything we have done with our program. He has always been the consummate worker who brings out the best in those around him. I couldn’t be happier for his success.” …
