Jan. 20, 2009
Columbia, Mo. -
The Big 12 Conference has named junior Sarah Shire (Columbia, Mo.) as Co-Big 12 Gymnast of the Week with Nebraska junior Kylie Stone.
This is the second straight week the award has gone to Shire. Last week, both she and senior Alicia Hatcher (Blue Springs, Mo.) were given weekly awards by the conference. Hatcher was named Big 12 Event Specialist of the Week after opening weekend.
The awards come after strong season-opening performances from Shire. She has won the all-around title two weeks in a row with a score of 39.350.
Her win at Arizona State included a 9.925 score on balance beam -- a new career high for the gymnast. Just the week before, she had tied that record with a 9.900 against Iowa State. She also matched her season highs on bars (9.775) and floor (9.80) in last weekend's meet.
This is the third weekly award for Shire -- in addition to last week's award, she was named Co-Big 12 Gymnast of the Week after putting up a 39.500 against Centenary in February 2008. Shire was also named the Big 12's Newcomer of the Year for 2008, and was picked for the first-team All-Big 12 on vault and for the All-Big 12 Championship team on beam.
The performance last Friday pushed Shire to No. 7 in the country, No. 2 on the beam and No. 14 on the vault.
Shire will be in action again this weekend and hoping to lead the now-No.12 Tigers to another victory, this time against Stone and Nebraska. The meet is Missouri's home opener, and has been designated the fifth annual "Pink Out" -- a portion of the admissions proceeds will go to the Ellis Fischel Cancer Center, and fans are encouraged to wear pink. That meet will start at 6:30 p.m. at the Hearnes Center. Stay with mutigers.com for news and updates throughout the week.
