Florida Gators
NCAA Individual Event Finals
Gator Gymnasts Perform Well in NCAA Individual Event Finals
Sunday, April 25, 2010 | Gymnastics
Freshman Marissa King led the Gators with a fourth-place finish in the NCAA Gymnastics Individual Event Finals held Saturday in front of a Stephen O'Connell Center crowd of 3,849.
King also finished fifth on floor exercise and was joined by teammate Maranda Smith, who tied for fifth on uneven bars.
King's performance Saturday was a nice ending for her first Gator campaign, especially after she had troubles in Friday's NCAA Super Six team final.
“I was so proud, especially, with Marissa coming back from yesterday,” UF coach Rhonda Faehn said. “For her to rebound today the way she did and to show her true spirit — her energy out there was just really captivating.
“It's the best any freshman class has done in the Individual Event Finals since I've been at Florida.”
The random draw had King as the first Gator to compete for an individual title. The vault format included each gymnast attempting two different vaults and the score was the average of both attempts.
A slight break in King's first vault attempt — a Tsukahara one and a half — lowered her average to 9.825, good for fourth place. It's the best NCAA vault finish for a Gator since Erinn Dooley tied for fourth in 2004.
“(Today) definitely lifted my spirits up,” King said. “I just decided that I was going to come out and really enjoy it — not focus on any of the scores.
“I couldn't ask for anything more of my freshman year. I still didn't know the whole aspect of being an All-American. It's good, it sounds good.”
It was also the best finish for a Florida freshman in the NCAA vault final. Chantelle Tousek nabbed eighth in 2004; and current senior Amanda Castillo tied for 13th in her freshman campaign.
Freshman Ashan?e Dickerson, who scored a 9.925 for her Yurchenko full, was slightly hurt by the 9.8 start value on her second vault, a Yurchenko layout, and finished with a 9.8 average. The two-time All American finished two spots behind her fellow freshman.
“It was a great experience,” Dickerson said. “I had a lot of support from my teammates who were also doing event finals and the other girls who were doing the same event as me.”
Vanessa Zamarripa (UCLA) captured the vault title with her average score of 9.925 — scoring a 9.95 on her first vault and answering with a solid 9.9 on her second vault.
In her last uneven bars routine of her career, Smith tallied a 9.9 that included a perfectly stuck double front with half twist dismount. The four-time All-American landed in a two-way tie with Arkansas' Casey Jo Magee for fifth.
”It was amazing, I'm really glad at how I finished out with bars,” Smith said. “Last night I had a really good vault and floor, so today I wanted to top it off with a great bar routine. I got a rush (when I landed) through my body and tears in my eyes because it was my last bar routine.”
Fellow senior Amanda Castillo nailed a 9.8625 for eighth place. Castillo's appearance in the bars final made her the first Gator ever to appear in every individual event final over her career.
“Before my bar routine, I started to tear up and said 'Pull yourself together Amanda, you have a bar routine to do,'” Castillo said. “I just soaked it all in.”
Carly Janiga, from Stanford, took home the bars title with her score of 9.9375.
King, who advanced to the floor exercise individual final with a college-best 9.925 on Thursday, scored a 9.8875. Despite a raucous crowd backing, Dickerson wobbled a bit on the landing of her last tumbling pass and took a 9.85.
King got fifth, tied with Elfi Schlegel for the best on floor for a freshman in program history. Dickerson's 10th-place finish rivals top freshmen floor finishes in school history. Betsy Hamm tied for 11th in 1998 and Corey Hartung tied for eighth in 2006.
“We really couldn't have asked for more from out athletes,” Faehn said. “I'm just really proud of the way they finished.”
Brittani McCullough, another Bruin, took home the floor title with her far-and-away score of 9.9375.
Susan Jackson, an LSU senior, represented the Southeastern Conference with a balance beam title. As the last competitor, Jackson needed to best a 9.8875 held by Janiga and Courtney McCool from Georgia. The senior executed a near-perfect routine and received a near-perfect mark of 9.9625.
The NCAA Individual Event Finals signaled the end of the 2010 NCAA Gymnastics Championships. The 2011 NCAA Championships are set for April 14-16 in the Wolstein Center in Cleveland, Ohio.
| NCAA Individual Event Finals – April 24, 2010 | |||||
| Vault | |||||
| Name | School | Vault 1 | Vault 2 | Average | Rank |
| Vanessa Zamarripa | UCLA | 9.9500 | 9.9000 | 9.9250 | 1 |
| Susan Jackson | LSU | 9.9375 | 9.8500 | 9.8938 | 2 |
| Mandi Rodriguez | Oregon State | 9.8750 | 9.8125 | 9.8438 | 3 |
| Marissa King | Florida | 9.8125 | 9.8375 | 9.8250 | 4 |
| Sarah Shire | Missouri | 9.8750 | 9.7625 | 9.8188 | 5 |
| Ashan?e Dickerson | Florida | 9.9250 | 9.6750 | 9.8000 | 6 |
| Kylee Botterman | Michigan | 9.8750 | 9.7125 | 9.7938 | 7 |
| Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs | UCLA | 9.9000 | 9.6625 | 9.7813 | 8 |
| Mary Atkinson | Arizona State | 9.6875 | 9.8375 | 9.7625 | 9 |
| Blair Ryland | Stanford | 9.8750 | 9.6500 | 9.7625 | 9 |
| Ashley Lee | LSU | 9.8375 | 9.6875 | 9.7625 | 9 |
| Brittnee Martinez | Michigan | 9.8375 | 9.6000 | 9.7188 | 12 |
| Jaime Pisani | Arkansas | 9.7250 | 9.7125 | 9.7188 | 12 |
| Anna Li | UCLA | 9.8125 | 9.5250 | 9.6688 | 14 |
| Geralen Stack-Eaton | Alabama | 9.6000 | 9.7250 | 9.6625 | 15 |
| Allison Buckley | Illinois | 9.8500 | 9.1625 | 9.5063 | 16 |
| Sharaya Musser | Penn State | 9.8500 | 9.1125 | 9.4813 | 17 |
| Lora Evenstad | Nebraska | 9.7125 | 9.8000 | 8.7563 | 18 |
| Uneven Bars | |||
| Name | School | Score | Rank |
| Carly Janiga | Stanford | 9.9375 | 1 |
| Hollie Vise | Oklahoma | 9.9250 | 2 |
| Summer Hubbard | LSU | 9.9250 | 2 |
| Susan Jackson | LSU | 9.9125 | 4 |
| Maranda Smith | Florida | 9.9000 | 5 |
| Casey Jo Magee | Arkansas | 9.9000 | 5 |
| Anna Li | UCLA | 9.8750 | 7 |
| Kayla Hoffman | Alabama | 9.8625 | 8 |
| Kassi Price | Alabama | 9.8625 | 8 |
| Amanda Castillo | Florida | 9.8625 | 8 |
| Daria Bijak | Utah | 9.8000 | 11 |
| Balance Beam | |||
| Name | School | Score | Rank |
| Susan Jackson | LSU | 9.9625 | 1 |
| Courtney McCool | Georgia | 9.8875 | 2 |
| Carly Janiga | Stanford | 9.8875 | 2 |
| Casey Jo Magee | Arkansas | 9.8750 | 4 |
| Kyndal Robarts | Utah | 9.8625 | 5 |
| Geralen Stack-Eaton | Alabama | 9.8500 | 6 |
| Jamie Deetscreek | Utah | 9.8375 | 7 |
| Brandi Personett | Penn State | 9.8375 | 7 |
| Kelsey Knutson | Michigan | 9.7000 | 9 |
| Ashley Priess | Alabama | 8.8250 | 10 |
| Floor Exercise | |||
| Name | School | Score | Rank |
| Brittani McCullough | UCLA | 9.9375 | 1 |
| Sarah Shire | Missouri | 9.9000 | 2 |
| Hollie Vise | Oklahoma | 9.9000 | 2 |
| Brandi Personett | Penn State | 9.9000 | 2 |
| Marissa King | Florida | 9.8875 | 5 |
| Morgan Dennis | Alabama | 9.8875 | 5 |
| Vanessa Zamarripa | UCLA | 9.8750 | 7 |
| Natalie Beilstein | Michigan | 9.8750 | 7 |
| Annie DiLuzio | Utah | 9.8750 | 7 |
| Ashan?e Dickerson | Florida | 9.8500 | 10 |
| Jaime Pisani | Arkansas | 9.8500 | 10 |
| Casey Jo Magee | Arkansas | 9.8125 | 12 |
| Makayla Stambaugh | Oregon State | 9.7375 | 13 |
