Co-national champs on floor!

The Pioneers ended the 2009 USA Gymnastics Collegiate National Championships on a high note as seniors Amie Boles and Tonya Pipkorn posted matching scores of 9.850 to share the national championship on floor exercise!

What a way for Amie and Tonya to end their collegiate careers! They walked off the competition floor for the last time as national champions. Everybody is crazy happy for them right now!

Freshman Rashonda Cannie tied for fourth in the bars finals with a score of 9.700.

Here is a complete breakdown of the TWU results on both bars and floor (with place listed in parentheses):

Bars-
Rashonda Cannie, 9.700 (T-4th)
Kristie Costa, 9.625 (T-8th)

Floor-
Amie Boles, 9.850 (T-1st)
Tonya Pipkorn, 9.850 (T-1st)
Rashonda Cannie, 9.775 (7th)

That's all for now. I'll have more reaction (from both coaches and gymnasts) up here later tonight.

A silver on vault, a bronze on beam

The Pioneers picked up medals in both the vault and beam event finals! Senior Brittany Parker placed second on vault and senior Tonya Pipkorn tied for third on beam. Congrats to Britt and Tonya! Parker actually was in line for the title until the last vaulter of the competition, Temple's Katie Canning, absolutely nailed her vault to take home the championship.

Here is a complete list of the scores (with place listed in parentheses) for all of the TWU gymnasts that competed in the vault and beam finals:

Vault -
Brittany Parker, 9.763 (2nd)
Rashonda Cannie, 9.625 (6th)
Kristie Costa, 9.263 (10th)

Beam -
Tonya Pipkorn, 9.750 (T-3rd)
Brittany Parker, 9.725 (T-5th)
Kristie Costa, 9.675 (9th)

The floor and bars finals are just getting underway!

Rotation Schedule for Individual Event Finals

Here's how today's meet will run - beam and vault will be conducted first. The two events will be run simultaneuously, vault first, followed by beam.

After vault and beam are completed, floor and bars will run simultaneously.

The scoring for the individual event finals is a little different as well. Four judges will score each routine, the high and the low score will be dropped, and the middle two scores will be averaged to come up with a final score. Also, each of the competitors on vault will perform two vaults.

A little confusing yes, but isn't that always the case with gymnastics? HA.

March-in is done, the anthem has been performed, and it's time to get after it here in Connecticut! The beam and vault finals will begin momentarily.

Individual Event Finals - Will beats skill?

Welcome to the third and final day of the 2009 USA Gymnastics Collegiate National Championships from the James Moore Field House on the campus of Southern Connecticut State University.

Five TWU gymnasts - Amie Boles, Rashonda Cannie, Kristie Costa, Brittany Parker, and Tonya Pipkorn - are warming up right now to compete in the Individual Event Finals. Boles will take part on floor, Cannie will participate on vault, bars, and floor; Costa will be on vault, bars, and beam; Parker on vault and beam; Pipkorn on beam and floor.

This afternoon's individual finals offer an shot at redemption for the Pioneers after last night's frustrating fourth place finish in the team finals. It's not going to be easy, however, for the TWU gymnasts. I know our girls are physically and emotionally spent after two days of intense team competion. That being said, I know Amie, Rashonda, Kristie, Brittany, and Tonya are determined to make up for last night's miscues. We'll see how it goes!

I'm gonna run down to the competition floor and find out the rotation schedule for this meet...

Dealing with defeat

When I walked out of the James Moore Field House about 30 minutes ago I stepped into a drenching downpour. Perhaps it was the gymnastics gods raining on what could have easily been a TWU Pioneer victory parade tonight at Southern Connecticut State University.

If you read my post-meet write up, you saw that Coach Kudlac summed up tonight's defeat in one word - disappointing. The General seemed stunned by the loss, just like the rest of the TWU gymnasts, coaches, and fans. The Pioneers' started unbelievably strong tonight as they rocked floor and vault. However, at some point between the second rotation and the end of the meet, the team hit a wall. It was almost like things were going to good at the start - we were up by a point and a half after two rotations. That lead proved to be too good to be true in the end. Bridgeport and Cornell came on strong while we faded.

The pain of this loss was obvious after the meet. Lots of tears, lots of distraught faces. Everybody took it pretty tough. I felt horrible for our girls, they worked insanely hard this year - 6:00 a.m. runs in September, two-a-day practices over Christmas and Spring Break, a ton of time in the practice gym - and to fall short of their ultimate goal tonight was definitely painful.

This team will bounce back though, starting tomorrow afternoon in the Individual Event Finals. This is a tough group, and they'll make amends for this loss. Junior Keri Miller told me as much in a brief conversation we had a little while ago. I had stopped to console her and Keri gave me a determined look and said "Ten in 10." I was puzzled for a second, so Keri repeated the phrase, "Ten in 10," and added "I'm serious, Jeff." You have to love Keri's attitude. She's already planning on winning the Pioneers' tenth national title in 2010. I wouldn't bet against her.

TWU finishes fourth

The team scores have just been announced. TWU finishes in fourth place with a score of 190.800. William and Mary came in third with a 191.100. Bridgeport and Cornell are the 2009 co-national champions with matching scores of 191.675.

Red-hot start. Ice cold finish.

Disappointment for TWU here in New Haven.

Still a season to be proud of for the Pioneers. Congrats once again to the eight seniors on the TWU roster - Brittany Parker, Amie Boles, Jennifer Kingsbury, Kelsey Nixon, Brista Michael, Tonya Pipkorn, Amy Hulbert - on their remarkable college careers. You guys will be missed.

Off to write a story for the DRC. I'll get more post-meet reaction up on this blog a little bit later.

TWU struggles on beam...

The Pioneers struggled mightily on their final event of the team finals, balance beam. Three TWU beam workers fell, resulting in an unofficial beam team score of 46.525, the second-lowest of the season for the team. Here are the Pioneers' individual scores on beam:

Rashonda Cannie 9.300
Alexa Brennan 9.100
Caroline Hilpisch 7.850
Brittany Parker 9.350
Kristie Costa 9.050
Tonya Pipkorn 9.725

Still no word on the final team scores. The Pioneers had a commanding lead after two rotations; we'll have to see if it holds up. Stay tuned...