University of Washington Official Athletic Site - Women's Gymnastics
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Feb. 4, 2003
Hello Husky Fans:
We just returned from the sunny state of Florida. It was sort of weird being in the Orlando area the morning the Columbia came down. The Launch Center at Cape Canaveral where the shuttle was to land is not far from where we were. Tragedies such as these always seem to put things into a different perspective, and I am thankful to have just one more day. Our prayers and thoughts go out to the seven astronauts and their families.
Well, back to gymnastics.
We left the university at 4 a,m. Thursday to head for the airport. Have you ever seen college students at 4 a.m.? They are just the most bubbly, vivacious, and happy campers you will ever meet. And if you believe that tell the Easter Bunny to leave me some extra Peeps this year.
We flew to Salt lake City, and then connected to Orlando. From Orlando it was a two hour drive to Gainesville, as we pulled into Gainesville off of I-75 assistant coach Heidi Coleman and I decided to go four wheeling. No explanation supplied, so use your imagination, (you're probably right).
We went that evening to workout at the O'Connell Center where we would compete the next day. Everyone seemed in pretty good spirits, and endured the cross country flight fairly well. That evening we went to McAllister's for dinner, very good sandwiches. Friday morning assistant coach Frank Lee, Heidi, Kathy Thompson (trainer), and I had a recreational outing. I shot an 84! Friday afternoon soon came and we met in the hotel lobby to view the tape from our home competition where the women had an outstanding home opener. After a short team meeting we headed for the competition.
There were four teams in the competition Washington, Florida, George Washington, and Rhode Island. Our competitive order was Floor, Vault, Bars, and Beam. Amy Metcalf started us off well with a solid routine that scored a 9.700. Unfortunately Tacia LaBatte who was our fourth gymnast up sprained her ankle on her first pass and could not finish her routine. We ended up having to count two falls on the floor.
On vault we did an outstanding job with Kelly McDonald, Emily Pritchard, and Stacy Wong each scoring an impressive 9.900. We came into the competition the number-one nationally ranked team on vault. The new rankings came out today and we are still number one on vault. Congrats GymDawgs!
After vault we went to bars. We did well on bars, but there were some minor breaks. Our team score on bars was 48.800, and there is room to improve. We moved on to the balance beam, our last event. Funny how that works out, beam is the most stressful event, and we end up the meet on that event. Home court advantage! But the Huskies did not falter. We scored a 48.800, and that included a deduction of .3 that the judges took on Molly Seaman's routine after she did an outstanding job and rocked her routine to receive a 9.850. The deduction was for leaving the mounting board next to the beam during her routine.
Florida had there best home meet in their history to score a school record home score of 196.950. The Huskies had a 194.650. We had a team meeting the next evening, and have come up with a plan to be more consistent at away competitions.
The ladies did Karaoke Saturday evening and Kim Lewis was the Belle of the Ball singing a Selena song with her teammates backing her up. This weekend we have two competitions. Friday evening at Seattle Pacific, and Sunday at UCLA. This team is for real and I hope you are all at our next home competition February 14th vs. Stanford. The Huskies are currently ranked 13th in the country, and looking to improve.
Until Next week, Go Huskies!
Bob Levesque
Washington Women's Gymnastics Coach
