Saturday, March 15, 2008

Georgia v. UCLA Tidbits

Abby Stack will be competing on the uneven bars and floor exercise tonight. Stack earned the spot in the lineup over Newby due to her ability to stick dismounts.

Megan Dowlen has been training on vault, but is limited by the number of repetitions she's able to do per day. She is expected to vault in the post season and is still progressing on schedule. Dowlen will compete on balance beam today because Childs wobbled on her front aerial in practice. Childs is typically motivated by missing an opportunity to compete against a top opponent and is expected to be solid in the post season.

Hilary Mauro has only been vaulting for two weeks, but has earned her second consecutive spot in the vault lineup after only minimal practice. Mauro will be vaulting a Yurchenko Full, but may upgrade to a 1 1/2 for the post season if she can clean up her form on the vault.

Cassidy McComb was unable to practice balance beam due to her eye infection. McComb looked strong on vault and floor during yesterday's intrasquad.

Marcia Newby stuck her Hristakeava during the intrasquad.

Tiffany Tolnay and Katie Heenan delivered strong performances during the intrasquad and have been consistently practicing well. Both are expected to compete in the all-around.

Grace Taylor has been on fire in practice. Taylor earned a 9.95 on the uneven bars, 9.925 on balance beam and a 9.9 on floor exercise during the intrasquad. Taylor and McCool led the team to a 49.500 on beam yesterday.

Tonight's meet had been expected to be held on a podium, but it will be held on the regular competition floor in order to accommodate season ticket holders who had previously purchased the ground-level seating for the meet.

Kristina Comforte has resumed training on the balance beam. Comforte is hoping to be back in the all-around for the post season. Mizuki Sato, Melissa Chan and Niki Tom will all compete this evening. Marci Bernholtz has been looking solid on beam since fixing a technical issue on her series. The Schwikert sisters have continued to improve and are both expected to deliver solid performances. Anna Li has resumed training on all events. Numerous tests have not found any damage to her foot.

Tonight's meet begins at 7:30 p.m. EST and will be broadcast on GXTRA. Highlights of UCLA's performances will be posted on uclabruins.com by Monday or Tuesday.

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