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Women gymnasts finish season in 'Super' style, place sixth at NCAAs

Sweet home Alabama. For the Crimson Tide, that is.

Performing in front of its home crowd, Alabama pulled away from the field - including Michigan - in the final rotation to win its third women's gymnastics national championship April 26.

The Crimson Tide finished with a score of 198.025. The Wolverines came in sixth, less than two points behind with a tally of 196.375.

Georgia led the Crimson Tide by five-hundredths of a point after three events of the Super Six team finals.

But when the Gym Dogs managed only a 48.575 in their final event - the uneven bars - Alabama was quick to take advantage.

The Crimson Tide set an NCAA record, scoring 49.775 on the vault to put it ahead of Georgia, which finished with a team total of 196.775.

That score, however, ended up as good enough for only a third-place tie.

Perfect scores by Danielle McAdams and Kim Kelly highlighted Alabama's record-breaking event, and put the team over the top and into the catbird seat.

"In the locker room before the last event, I looked at the team and said, 'We can do this, ladies,'" Crimson Tide head coach Sarah Patterson said.

"At that moment, I saw incredible spirit in this team. We knew what it took to win," she said.

Leading the Wolverines was senior Wendy Marshall, who scored a 39.475 in the all-around. That mark was good enough for the fourth-highest score in the team finals.

Although the Wolverines finished second last year, and were the fourth seed entering the meet, coach Bev Plocki said she was not upset with the sixth-place finish.

"We don't think of ourselves as losers," Plocki said after the meet.

"I don't think a lot of people thought we would make it this far after losing five seniors, much less make it to the Super Six (again)," she said.

The Wolverines' performance in the preliminaries in late April almost kept them from making it into the Super Six.

Michigan scored 193.50 in the early session, its lowest output since March 1.

However, the score was good enough for third place in the early session, qualifying the Wolverines for Super Six competition the following day.

Michigan advanced to the second day despite the fact that all six teams competing in the evening session of the qualification round scored higher than the Wolverines.

UCLA finished second, leaping past Georgia on the last rotation to finish with a score of 197.475.

Utah came up short in its bid to retain the national title for another year.

The Utes - two-time defending champions - finished tied for third place with the Gym Dogs.

Oregon State finished fifth with a score of 196.525.

The meet marked the second time in two weeks that Alabama had broken the 198-point mark. The Crimson Tide scored an NCAA-record 198.075 at the Central Regional meet April 13.

Coming into the season, only Georgia had ever scored more than 198 points.