January 29, 2007

Sleepless in Seattle

Coming off two away meets and our first home meet, the coaches decided that it would be a good idea to lower our numbers routine-wise for the week. We kept up with our conditioning, but it was nice to give our bodies a little rest before heading to Washington. Also, it was exciting to put 6 new routines into the line-up. The additions allowed Liz and Heather to take a break after competing three consecutive weekends.

The trip to Seattle was definitely a treat. Seattle’s Best, Starbucks, Tully’s Coffee, side street coffee shops… it’s no wonder it's sleepless in Seattle! SWG had some time to chill before the competition so we went to shop around Pike’s Place for a bit. A bunch of us picked up or caught the HUGE fish at the open market (the vendor threw one of the fish at Liz!). It was pretty amusing. I, personally, was psyched to buy a drink from the original Starbucks! Anyhow, it was great just spending time together, getting some fresh air, and soaking up the beautiful Seattle scenery.

The competition got started off great with a solid bar rotation. Quick shout outs to Kelly Fee, who has done an amazing job setting the tone this year with her bar sets, and to Blair for adding the Jager into her bar routine (a release skill that looks like a front-flip in a straddle position)! Vault was lead by Carly (aka the Jaginaut), who started off the vault rotation with a bang. Pinch finished up the rotation with a classy yurchenko-layout 1/2, beautiful toe-point and all. It was really neat because we have special cheers that we do for some girls on vault. One of the things we do to show our support for Pinch is that we stand on the side of the runway and make pinching gestures with our hands. Yes, we are a little bit silly, but it’s all in good fun. Anyhow, it was awesome because a group of fans sitting by the vault runway started pinching their fingers in support for Pinch too! Moving on to the next rotation, we carried the momentum from vault to floor. Everyone did a great job performing their routines, especially our closer Steph Gentry who was absolutely breathtaking. It was her first time competing floor and it was great to see her out there! Lauren Elmore began the final rotation with her usual poise and confidence for an awesome beam set. The next performers followed suit with equally strong sets. There were a few bobbles here and there, but we were able to hold it together for a final score of 196.075. Yay SWG! As we look forward to the next few weeks, we are excited because we get a little break from traveling. Our next meet is against CAL on Sunday, February 4th followed by a home meet on February 9th. This time we will be competing in Maples. We hope to see you all there!

Thanks for checking in. We * heart * you guys!

-Tabbs