March 6, 2010
Live WebCast
COLUMBIA, Mo. - After two straight weeks at home, the No. 18 Missouri Tigers (8-2) are preparing for two straight meets on the road. The first comes this Friday, March 7, in a tri-meet at Southeast Missouri State (11-2) with Alaska (2-10).
This will be the 35th meeting between the two Missouri schools that have competed against each other in 21 of the last 22 years. The Tigers hold a 26-8 advantage over the Redhawks. It will be the first time Missouri has ever matched up against Alaska. It will be the fourth away meet of the season for the Tigers who haven't had the best luck with the weather on road meets this year.
"We are looking forward to competing against Alaska for the first time and I think we're ready to get back on the road again," Head Coach Rob Drass said. "The weather is good. We should have smooth team travel. I checked with SEMO and everything is on for the meet, so it should be a very good away meet."
The Tigers are coming off a season-high meet against Illinois State in which the team posted a 196.875. Along with team score, season highs were also posted on beam (49.150) and floor (49.500). Several gymnasts marked new career highs on several events, but senior All-American Sarah Shire (Columbia, Mo.) and sophomore Mary Burke (Inverness, Ill.) reached the program record on floor both posting a 9.975. Shire also set a new Missouri record with a 39.725 in the all-around moving the previous record of 39.650 (set in 2004) to second.
"When you have a good meet it's not hard to motivate the team," Drass said. "I think you gain so much confidence from a good performance and you can take that and run with it. The trick is to continue to work hard and to continue to do the things that allowed you to have that good meet. For our team, we need to come prepared and bring that excitement, enthusiasm and confidence and go out and do the same thing we did last meet."
Missouri will continue to look to Shire and Burke to carry on the success from last week, but they don't get it done alone. Senior Danielle Guider (Nutley, N.J.) has set a new career high for herself on beam twice in the past two meets. Junior Alex Gold (Plano, Texas) has been the model of a reliable gymnast with solid performances every week on vault, beam and floor. The Texas native is averaging a 9.800 on vault in the eight meets of the current season.
Fans unable to make the trip to Cape Girardeau, Mo., will have the opportunity to watch the meet via a live WebCast from KFVS12.com. The WebCast will be archived shortly after the meet for viewers to go back and watch at their convenience.
Stay with mutigers.com for updates and results from Cape Girardeau this weekend.
News and Notes
Scouting Southeast Missouri State (11-2)
The Redhawks of Southeast Missouri State have had a great season and are currently defending a home winning streak. SEMO is 6-0 in the Midwest Independent Conference (MIC) and, like the Tigers, had a win over Illinois State last weekend (194.375-193.275). The Redhawks hold a team average of 192.611, while their highest score of the season (194.600) came on Feb. 13 against BYU. Senior Rikara Turner and freshman Jordan Salsberg have been the two consistent all-around competitors for the Redhawks. Salsberg has received the MIC All-Arounder of the Week award twice this season (most recently last week), while Turner has received the award once this year and seven times in her career. Junior Brianna Gaddie has earned the MIC Specialist of the Week award three times this season for her solid work on vault and floor. Missouri leads the all-time series with SEMO 26-8.
Scouting Alaska (2-10)
Alaska has struggled a bit this season after winning the Mountain Pacific title in 2009 by going 2-10 so far this year. The Seawolves returned 10 letterwinners (losing none) from last year's team and is coming into this weekend's tri-meet on a two-meet winning streak. Alaska is currently in third in the Mountain Pacific Conference with the team averaging a 186.647 and a season-high 190.200. The Seawolves best event is vault on which they average a 47.866 per meet. This will be the first ever meeting between Missouri and Alaska.
Shire breaks Big 12 record
The Big 12 Conference named Sarah Shire the Big 12 Gymnast of the Week for the fifth time this season on March 2. Shire now holds the conference record for the most Gymnast of the Week honors at 12. Shire helped No. 18 Missouri (8-2) to a season-high 196.875 win against Illinois State (5-4) on Friday, Feb. 26. The senior captured her sixth all-around title of the season with a new school-record 39.725. Her 19th career all-around crown was marked by individual wins on vault (9.900), bars (9.900) and beam (9.950) and a tie for the floor (9.975) title. Shire's scores on beam and floor marked new career-highs on both events, while her floor score tied the Missouri program record.
A night full of career highs
Feb. 26, 2010, was a night that saw a large amount of career highs for the Tigers. A total of 13 career highs were matched or set by six Missouri gymnasts. The night started off on vault when senior Becky Scholle, the first competitor of the night, matched her career high with a 9.825. The rotation moved on as sophomore Mary Burke also matched her career-high 9.850. The bars rotation saw the replacement of career highs immediately as the first three gymnasts in the lineup set new highs for themselves. Freshman Lauren Swankoski was first with a 9.825, followed by a 9.800 from senior Danielle Guider and capped with a 9.850 from sophomore Allie Heizelman. On beam, it was the opposite of bars as the last three competitors in the lineup set the bar even higher for themselves. Guider scored a 9.850 that replaced her previous high set just a week before. Burke then matched her high of 9.875, which set up a 9.950 from senior Sarah Shire on a routine that scored a perfect 10 from one of the judges. Floor was not to be outdone as three Tigers who had already posted new career highs on other events just added to their outstanding nights. Swankoski earned a 9.900, which paved the way for a program-record tying 9.975 from both Burke and Shire. Their routines were so flawless that one judge gave them both a perfect 10. Guider and Shire set new highs for themselves in the all-around as well. Guider, in only her second meet as an all-around competitor, earned a 39.275, while Shire set a new school record (and obviously a career high) with a 39.725.
Record book update
When the record book is updated at the end of this 2010 season there will be many new additions that will be added from this season. At the Lady Luck Invitational in Las Vegas at the beginning of the season the Tigers posted a 49.200 on bars, which tied the 10th best score on that event. One week later the Tigers scored an impressive total of 49.400 on floor. At the time, that tied for the fourth best score on floor. That was before the Illinois State meet last week when the team totaled a 49.500 on the same event that now stands alone at fourth as the all-time team record for floor. That score is the highest for Missouri in program history in a dual meet. The overall team score from Feb. 26 totaled a 196.875, which will take its place as the fifth best team total in Missouri gymnastics history and the seventh best by any team in the country this season. Senior Sarah Shire and sophomore Mary Burke have re-written the all-time individual records as well. Shire has made her last season as a Tiger memorable one as she now holds three of the five Missouri individual records. She is tied for first on bars (9.950), tied for first on floor (9.975) and solely owns the all-around record (39.725). Shire holds the second spot on vault (9.950) and has moved to the third position in the record book on beam (9.950). Burke has had just as many outstanding routines this season as Shire. She now sits in the second spot on bars (9.925) and is tied with Shire and two others for the program record on floor (9.975). The very talented sophomore is not done breaking records and has the ability to leave Missouri in two years as one of the program's best.
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