There were some highlights, one especially wicked one and one especially touching one. For the wicked, a hot-shot sophomore from a team in the state directly to our west whom I would love to hate but she's just so darn good, mounts the beam with a very simple step up from the spring board to the beam. Only this time either she stepped wrong or the beam moved, because it just wasn't there when she stepped. I really can't describe how it looked, but as Katydid described it, "I missed her mount, but when I looked she was just sort of dangling off the beam." Awkward! She came in last on balance beam, and I would feel sorry for her except for the fact that she kicked our collected arses at the SEC competition.
The touching moment came from a vaulter from some western school who also only had one dog in the fight. For her second vault (yes, the competition wasn't already interminably long enough, but they require each vaulter to do two DIFFERENT vaults in the individual event finals, judged by six judges, dropping the high and low scores and averaging the remaining four, and the FOOLS that hosted this event didn't even have the decency to have electronic scoring), this girl ran down the runway, leaped onto the springboard, and planted herself squarely in the middle of the vaulting table. I swear I think she had those little birds tweeting around her head. But she gamely saluted the judges and ran back to the corral, probably wishing she were somewhere else. At the very end of the competition, however, they allowed her to come back and do her second vault again, I'm guessing because her misstep was due to an equipment malfunction. That's the only time I know if that you get do-overs in gymnastics.
Our girl tied for second on balance beam, so that's our only consolation prize from nationals this year. I can now consider the season officially over, and perhaps I can find something else to
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