6:42 p.m.: Gymnasts have been asked to clear the floor and report to "staging." So off they go.
6:39 p.m.: Alicia and Shawn have gone back to hanging out on floor, chatting and smiling. Nice to see.
6:36 p.m.: Like last year, Brady Quinn is in the house to watch Alicia Sacramone. Maybe he'll be at Nationals too, as long as the NFL lockout lasts. I don't know exactly where he is, but he's here and everyone's talking about it. The Universal Sports people are talking about trying to get him and Alicia together to do some sort of "spot".
6:34 p.m.: Vega looks very good, very prepared on all events. Right now she's powering through her moves on beam -- front aerial, bhs, layout. Side aerial. Two bhs to a stuck double pike.
6:28 p.m.: Oh, there we go -- a full twisting double layout from SJ. She does look a tad like fatigue is going to be a problem for her, but what did Chow say she was at? 30 percent?
It's funny to see Aly Raisman on bars now that she looks even more like Alicia than before. It's like Alicia's up there cranking through a routine, then stopping on high bar and changing her grip and casting and doing a double front dismount without so much as a giant to set her up.
6:26 p.m.: Jessie DeZiel of Twin City Twisters, in black, gray and neon green, just did a DTY, a bit overrotated, on vault. Earlier she did a fantastic Yurchenko 1.5.
6:23 p.m.: Casey Jo Magee is working Shaposh timers on bars.
McKenzie Wofford, bars: Toe full to Maloney, uprise to bail to toe hecht to high, toe full to Tkatchev, blind to Jaeger, stuck full in tuck.
B. Caquatto has a tucked Barani (front tuck half twist) on beam. She's very powerful and impressive for such a skinny, long-legged tall girl.
Chellsie Memmel just totally stuck a standing Arabian on beam. Shawn Johnson missed a Jaeger on bars. It appears she will do a double layout dismount, but it's a good double layout, with potential to add a full twist (or more...)
6:20 p.m.: Hallie Mossett is working an Arabian double front on floor. Brandie Jay follows up with a full in pike.
6:17 p.m.: Mackenzie Caquatto, bars: Jump to high and messes up the hop change, just like Nationals finals last year. OK, again: Hop chance to Jaeger, Church, Pak, Maloney to bail to clear full to toe hecht to high, Tkatchev, giants to full twisting double tuck with a step. Vintage Macko.
B. Caquatto, bars: Bail to toe hecht to high, giants to lovely overrotated double layout.
Anna Li, bars: Jaeger to Pak. Ray to high. Giants to full twisting double layout.
6:13 p.m.: Sophia Lee is warming up her double layout on floor, with a tiny spot from coach Laurent Landi. Very nice, that.
Alicia Sacramone is doing easy FTYs on vault.
Chellsie Memmel, bars: Maloney to bail to toe hecht to high, full turn to Tkatchev, giant, blind to double front. No jam. A bit watered down, but vintage Memmel. For what she does, she looks exactly like her old self.
6:06 p.m.: Here's a little clarification about Shawn Johnson, courtesy of USA Gymnastics directly. Shawn has petitioned to the U.S. Championships, and one of the conditions of the petition is that she come here and compete something (in this case, it will be bars and beam). But whether she actually goes to the U.S. Championships will be determined next week when her "readiness" is measured. I suppose that if she does excellently tonight and wins both her events a la Alicia Sacramone last year, that will be the end of that and she'll go. But we'll see.
6:01 p.m.: Memmel has been having problems with her vault timing, as evidenced by that little back shootover move she performed a few minutes ago. She balked her next attempt, and finally did something to great applause. Haven't seen her do anything harder than a Yurchenko tuck so far, although I didn't see her last go-round.
5:58 p.m.: A smiling-as-always Liang Chow comes over to chat with Jiani Wu.
5:54 p.m.: Sacramone continues to refine her triple twist. Meanwhile, Vega warmed up a Yurchenko 1.5 on vault and Bridgette Caquatto is doing FTYs on vault, but they're so high and clean that I'd be surprised if she doesn't go for something harder. She's wearing the same leotard the Legacy Elite girls wore on day two of last year's U.S. Championships.
Aly Raisman continues to murder her 1.5s through to Arabian double fronts, and Chellsie Memmel made the small crowd in here gasp by shooting off the springboard on vault and going over the table backwards on her bottom and doing essentially a backward roll off the end of the table. Wow. Memmel paused for a moment and caught her breath, like "whew!" and then began laughing.
B. Caquatto just went for a DTY. A bit low, but she made it. Then she overrotated one.
5:52 p.m.: There have been some problems, and I apologize in advance if this interrupts the quick hits at any point. My fingers are crossed that the hardwire continues to work, because the wireless has been in and out.
5:45 p.m.: Valeri Liukin is talking Jessica Howe through her bar routine as she goes through it. After she's done, there's more talking. The routine includes a Tkatchev and a Jaeger.
Sacramone missed two front pikes in a row on beam. She still looks like she's rotating too slowly in the air to me.
Sophina DeJesus, who is basically making her senior debut here after sitting out last year's Nationals, is attention-getting in bright blue and green.
Amanda Jetter is weing the same pink, gray and white leotard worn by the Cincinatti juniors earlier this afternoon.
5:42 p.m.: McKayla Maroney will apparently only be doing two events tonight -- bars and beam -- and is in a very AOGC purple-and-white leotard.
5:38 p.m.: Sabrina Vega looks very, very good -- she just tumbled a strong 2.5 to front layout. And wow, Bridgey Caquatto -- front handspring, front double full, front layout full! My, my.
Lauren Beers has a good strong Yurchenko 1.5 but she seems a bit close to the horse. Maybe it's just my angle.
Aly Raisman, in a blue two-shades-of-blue leotard, looks more mature than she did last year. And when I say that I don't mean fat or anything like that -- she just looks more of an adult. And more like Alicia Sacramone.
5:34 p.m.: The West Coast Elite girls, Hallie Mossett and Jaclyn McCartin, are in white with a purple "wave" design that covers exactly half of the leotard. Think of black-and-white cookies, and make it purple and in leotard form.
The WOGA seniors are wearing the same gray and burgundy horror Katelyn Ohashi previewed for us earlier today. Actually, the design might be slightly different because they're seniors. Reminds me of a belly dancing outfit.
5:31 p.m.: Sacramone's look tonight is also burgundy and white, while McKenzie Wofford is going for shock factor in black and sunshine yellow sleeves with a kind of flame design that encompasses the sleeves and travels down the hips like bright yellow ivy on a leotard. Nia Dennis of Buckeye Gymnastics wore the same thing in the junior division, but with pink instead of yellow against the black.
Sacramone on beam: Bhs, layout to two feet, solid as a rock.
5:26 p.m.: Unlike Johnson, who is probably wearing something from one of her leotard lines, Gabrielle Douglas is in something very national team-y: red long sleeves with a little bit of swirly white detailing. Sabrina Vega is in burgundy and white, Jordyn Wieber in black and white with a pink and blue flower/ribbon thing on the bodice (this is what she wore at the WOGA Classic earlier this season, I believe).
Chellsie Memmel, in elegant black and turquoise and many sparkles, is working her piked barani on a line on floor.
5:21 p.m.: Johnson goes right to the uneven bars and begins doing cast handstands on the low bar. Oh, her leo is interesting: a mature, rather avant garde black, silver and nude mesh concoction with lots of sparkles and what looks like the silver part of her leotard wrapping around her arm! Very interesting. Very. Sparkles all over the mesh sleeve, but not on the black. Then it's quickly over to vault, where she does some press handstands with the help of a springboard and a spot from Liang Chow.
CHICAGO, 5:07 p.m.: Open stretch for the seniors will begin in a few minutes, and for now the athletes are trickling in and beginning to stretch on the edges of the floor mat. I see a mature looking Shawn Johnson, makeup on, hair in that sideparted ponytail and very short quiff bangs ("like Elvis," Couch Gymnast Brigid McCarthy says helpfully as I search for a way to describe this. But, you know, not nearly to that extent).
Lauren Beers, in the black, silver and lime green Southern Tier warmup jacket and matching limeaid green socks, is stretching and moving around a bit on floor. Then Alicia Sacramone, in plain gray sweats, and Johnson come over for a chat. Sacarmone eventually gets up and leads the seniors in running around the mat.
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