By AVIS HIXON
Co-Captain, Tiger Gymnastics

We loved competing at home this past Sunday. It's always nice to be on our equipment with our friends and families in the stands.

Right before we ran out the new president of the University, Maravene Loeschke, and Athletic Director, Mike Waddell, gave us some encouraging words and wished us good luck. It means a lot to receive that kind of support and we appreciated it.

Although we didn't agree with some of the judging, we were still pleased with our performance.

Balance beam was definitely our biggest improvement as we made five out of six routines. Britney Russell made a new skill that she started working on this past week but fell on her front tuck.

Our coaches wanted to try something out for senior Alyssa Dittman's beam routine. They had the whole team go behind the bleachers and not cheer for her. We've done this in practice a few times but we never expected to do it in an actual competition. Luckily it worked and Alyssa stuck her routine!

Another change we had on Sunday was that we only put up five routines on floor. Due to some shaky practices, freshman Janis Konkle was not allowed to compete. This was a real eye opener for our freshmen. It showed them that the coaches mean what they say.

Janis has been working hard this week to earn her line up spot back.

In the meet against Alaska and William & Mary, we made all five routines without a fall - but Kacy Catanzaro did touch her hand after her last tumbling pass.We were happy with our 48.625 floor score and it clinched the meet for us.

Last week's Courageous Tiger winner, Lindsay Poplaski, decided to give this week's award to Sammy Lutz. Sammy did a great job of starting us off with clean hit routines on bars and floor and exhibitioned on beam.

Lindsay was also thinking of awarding Kacy, who had an amazing meet with the exception of floor. Kacy won vault, bars and beam and took first in the all around. Lindsay also considered giving the award to Lauren Ross, who did another great beam routine and placed second.

After watching film from the meet we have new corrections to work on and more confidence in our ability. We were pleased with our score of 193.00 and look to keep doing better.

This week, we are back on the road as we travel to West Virginia University for a meet against WVU and George Washington. West Virginia always has a strong team and this will be a challenge for us.