NCAA Super Six results:
- 1. University of Alabama 197.65
- 2. UCLA 197.375
- 3. University of Oklahoma 197.250
- 4. University of Nebraska 196.725
- 5. University of Utah 196.500
- 6. University of Michigan 196.425
In the end, the 2011 NCAA Super Six Final was a tale of defending champions who seemed more like Cinderellas and underdogs who performed like defending champions.
The expectation of Alabama women's gymnastics going into the 2011 season was that they would be a top SEC school, as they always are, but probably not the top SEC school. NCAA title contender? Sure. Bama is almost always an NCAA title contender. But it had been almost a decade since that last won one.
All that was wiped away during Friday's preliminary round, when Florida, whom Bama beat for the SEC title this year anyway, was wiped out after a bum beam rotation. Instead of turning Cleveland into Gatortown, Alabama took its rightful place as the top team in the country and never looked back.
The Crimson Tide earned its first NCAA team championship since 2002 with two nights of flawless performances, holding off an eleventh hour charge by defending champion UCLA, which didn't begin performing the way everyone expected it to going into the season until about 5 p.m. central time today.
The Bruins, without injured star Vanessa Zamarripa and without freshman Olympian Samantha Peszek competing floor, pulled it together through four events, not counting a fall. But Alabama, which competed eight gymnasts -- the fewest of any school in the Super Six -- was still too deep.
Freshman Sarah Demeo, Diandra Milliner and Kim Jacob all delivered big routines and big scores, while the one mistake -- a fall off beam from senior Kayla Hoffman -- was quickly dropped and forgotten about. (Hoffman made up for it by going 9.925 or better on the other three events, and still tallied 39.2 in the all-around in spite of the fall).
Oklahoma, which has been on point all season despite not having an all-around star (or any all-around gymnast) had the highest team score on beam (49.425) but could not match Alabama anywhere else. The Sooners, who finished second last year, settled for third in 2011.
Nebraska, something of a Super Six surprise, was again solid to finish fourth, its top placement in several years. A still banged up Utah squad did not make a major mistake in competition but did not have the sizzling scores of other teams and ended in fifth place, ahead of Michigan, which counted a fall on beam.
Photo gallery! Gymnastics photographer Heather Maynez is at the NCAA Championships in Cleveland and captured Alabama's Super Six qualification. Her snaps of the team can be found by clicking the image of Ashley Sledge at left, or here. Look out for more galleries from Heather later this weekend.
Related: Full results from the Super Six finals can be found here.
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