The 2011 NCAA event finals were a show of strength. Georgia, which didn't make the Super Six, benefitted from Kat Ding's gold medal on uneven bars after an early season injury.
Alabama capped off the best weekend the school has had at the NCAA Championships in nearly a decade, earning the team title and another national championship from Geralen Stack-Eaton on floor.
Samantha Peszek's much-anticipated UCLA debut was postponed by a foot injury until nearly halfway through the season, but she too came back strong and pulled out Olympic-quality gymnastics (a nice standing full on beam, one of the very few to have done it in NCAA competition) to win her first NCAA title. One can only hope that inspires her teammate Vanessa Zamarripa, now out with a torn Achilles, to more of the same next year.
Marissa King's first NCAA Championships, in 2010, were not the meet of her dreams. So it's nice to see her not get bogged down by thinking about last year's competition ("I hardly remember last season at all, really," she said cheerfully) and show two difficult and unusual vaults to win her first NCAA title.
If King wanted, she could take that vaulting expertise back to Britain and make a run at the 2012 Olympic team. Vault is not a strong event for the team right now, and they could use her experience and expertise.
Photo gallery! Gymnastics photrographer Heather Maynez shot event finals at the NCAA Championships and has generously shared her beautiful photos with Examiner.com. Click on the image of Oklahoma's Natasha Kelley off to the left to enter the gallery, or just click here. Enjoy!
Other 2011 NCAA Gymnastics Championships photo galleries:
- Women's Super Six Finals
- Women's Super Six qualification
- Women's Event Finals: Vault and Floor
- Men's Event Finals
- 2011 NCAA champion Stanford men in action
- 2011 NCAA champion Alabama women in action
- 2011 NCAA men's all-around champion Sam Mikulak
- The look of the NCAA Championships
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