UCLA took the trophy from Georgia in an interesting final yesterday, not that Georgia were able to attempt defense. It was a close run battle between UCLA and Oklahoma, but the Bruins came out on top thanks to stronger vaults and better consistency.
Utah started well and were doing alright until beam when a fall from Daria Bijak caused a few problems, they finished last of the Super Six. Bad end to a career for the German.
Florida totally screwed everything up and finished 5th, unfortunately thanks to Marissa King (well she is British, she was going to screw everything up at some point). She scored in the 8s on bars, fell off beam and stepped out of bounds on floor, so Florida lost scores it would have wanted to count.
Stanford came 4th, good placing and unexpected for them, predominantly because unlike prelims Alysse Ishino didn't feel like going wrong everywhere. They have some crazy floor routines going on, and a great showing on vault put them this close to the top 3, but they couldn't quite hold on.
Alabama started of weak on floor, everyone stumbling backward and out of bounds, but they picked up with strong vault and bars to place 3rd overall, despite a fall from Geralen Stack-Eaton on beam.
Oklahoma put up a good fight, but in the final rotation UCLA needed an average of just over 9.8 to take the title, Oklahoma were on a bye. OMG their floor routines are CRAZY. Seriously whoever choreographed those routines must've been smoking something. Vault is probably their weak area, if they get stronger on that they could dominate. Also Natasha Kelley, there comes a point when one should stop competing. This happened when your ACL tore. THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU CAN CONTINUE WHEN IT'S COMPLETELY SEPARATED FROM YOUR LEG GIRL. Go get some surgery and REST. She was so strapped up.
UCLA did very well, there's no doubting that. They weren't sticking vaults very much but they were still scored well, their bars were typical strong bars, their beam was wobbleless and their floor was enough to clinch it. I confess I wanted to see Oklahoma do it, (well OBVIOUSLY I wanted Florida but after bars and beam it became apparent this would not be happening), and when UCLA got to floor I was kind of annoyed because there isn't really anything for them to go wrong on, save a double layout from one gymnast. Their choreography, much like Oklahoma's, is pretty mad, and Hoppy-Hibbs routine is ass-kicking in the crazyness and awesomeness departments, but I was a bit disappointed. Go figure.
EF tonight. Please acquit yourself better tonight Kingy. I know you're inherently British, but you've managed the rest of the season.
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