University of Alabama's 2013 NCAA Season

Alabama Gymnastics Beats Missouri in Season Opener

Alabama Gymnastics Beats Missouri in Season Opener

Jan 11, 2013 by Jennifer Teitell
Alabama Gymnastics Beats Missouri in Season Opener

COLUMBIA, Mo. – The two-time defending NCAA Champion Alabama gymnastics team opened the 2013 season with a 196.450-192.025 win over No. 21 ranked Missouri. Alabama, ranked No. 1 in the preseason coaches’ poll, is now 57-8-1 in season openers under Sarah and David Patterson, who are in their 35th season leading the Crimson Tide.

“I felt like we did a good job tonight, I didn’t feel like we were great, but I think that’s down the road,” UA head coach Sarah Patterson said. “We were pretty consistent, but we made little mistakes. For example, we hit all of our routines on the uneven bars, but we missed some handstands. We were just a little tight in some things like that.”

Alabama scored better than 49 on all four events and won all five individual titles. In her first all-around since her freshman year, junior All-American Kim Jacob won posted a 39.275 for the win.

In its first rotation, junior All-American Sarah DeMeo led the Tide to a 49.050 team score on the uneven bars with a 9.9. In addition to DeMeo’s winning score, senior All-Americans Ashley Sledge and Ashley Priess scored matching 9.925s to open and close the rotation.

Alabama came back on the vault and scored a 49.175 on the strength of junior All-American Diandra Milliner’s winning 9.925. Sophomore Kaitlyn Clark and All-American senior chipped in a pair of 9.825s to the Tide’s vault total.

Watch Milliner's 9.925 vault:


On the floor exercise, junior All-American Kim Jacob won the event with a 9.875, pacing Alabama to a 49.075 team score. Sophomore Brooke Parker scored a career-best 9.825 while DeMeo and Milliner closed out the Tide’s set with matching 9.85s.

“We had a few mistakes on floor exercise, and that was the event that we had the most question marks about coming into the meet because that’s the event that is the hardest to get back into coming off the Christmas holidays,” Patterson said.

The Tide finished out the meet with a 49.150 on the balance beam, led by matching 9.9s from Jacob and DeMeo, which were the top scores on the event, while Milliner added a 9.8 to UA’s total.

“I really thought we did well on the balance beam,” Patterson said. “It was a good way to finish off the night and carry us into next week.”

                                                     Alabama vs. Missouri


VAULT BARS BEAM FLOOR TOTALS
Alabama 49.175 49.050 49.150 49.075 196.450
Missouri 48.625 47.450 47.250 48.700 192.025
ALABAMA 
196.450
MISSOURI 
192.025
ALABAMA » UNEVEN BARS
Ashley Sledge 9.825
Becca Alexin 9.750
Kim Jacob 9.700
Kaitlyn Clark 9.750
Sarah DeMeo 9.900
Ashley Priess 9.825
TOTAL 49.050
MISSOURI » VAULT
Laura Kappler 9.600
Sandra Ostad 9.750
Katelyn Trevino 9.650
Tori Howard 9.750
Rachel Updike 9.875
Briana Conkle 9.550
TOTAL 48.625

Rotation 2

ALABAMA » VAULT
Kim Jacob 9.800
Kaitlyn Clark 9.825
Lauren Beers 9.450
Ashley Sledge 9.800
Marissa Gutierrez 9.825
Diandra Milliner 9.925
TOTAL 49.175
MISSOURI » UNEVEN BARS
Sandra Ostad 9.500
Taylor Medrea 7.700
Briana Conkle 9.475
Mackenzie McGill 9.650
Rachel Updike 9.575
Katelyn Trevino 9.250
TOTAL 47.450

Rotation 3

ALABAMA » FLOOR EXERCISE
Lauren Beers 9.650
Kaitlyn Clark 9.675
Brooke Parker 9.825
Kim Jacob 9.875
Sarah DeMeo 9.850
Diandra Milliner 9.850
TOTAL 49.075
MISSOURI » BALANCE BEAM
Laura Kappler 9.725
Taylor Medrea 9.425
Mackenzie McGill 9.075
Rachel Updike 9.850
Tori Howard 8.625
Briana Conkle 9.175
TOTAL 47.250

Rotation 4

ALABAMA » BALANCE BEAM
Marissa Gutierrez 9.775
Diandra Milliner 9.800
Kayla Williams 9.775
Sarah DeMeo 9.900
Ashley Priess 9.750
Kim Jacob 9.900
TOTAL 49.150
MISSOURI » FLOOR EXERCISE
Taylor Medrea 9.650
Cathryn Aliceaacosta 9.350
Katelyn Trevino 9.800
Tori Howard 9.825
Briana Conkle 9.675
Sandra Ostad 9.750
TOTAL 48.700

All Around

Kim Jacob Alabama 39.275
Briana Conkle Missouri 37.875



Alabama