Preview: Alabama Gymnastics vs Missouri
Will the Crimson Tide gymnastics team finally put together a complete meet this week?
The Tide gymnastics team has scored at least a 49.500 in all of the events but haven't had the success on every event in the same meet. Alabama scored a season high overall score of a 49.625 on the balance beam last week against LSU. The rest of the events didn't score above 49.500 overall.
Alabama has done better overall at home this season, so head coach Dana Duckworth believes the Tide can score big this weekend.
"It's a home setting which the girls love and they thrive off of," Duckworth said. "It's an opportunity to be able to hit those four-for-four events as a team and put it all together."
Bama has some momentum going into this week's meet as two Alabama gymnasts scored 9.975s against the Tigers last meet. Super-senior Lexi Graber stuck a Yurchenko 1.5 Vault in the anchor position, and junior Luisa Blanco performed a nearly perfect beam routine to anchor the beam lineup.
Freshman Lilly Hudson comes off of her best all-around meet with a career high 39.550. She was named the SEC Freshman Gymnast of the Week for the third time this season.
Junior Makarri Doggette was seen practicing this week on the Alabama gymnastics Instagram account, so hopefully she will be back in the uneven bars rotation this week. Her presence was missed at LSU as they only had one 9.900 bar score.
The Tide will need all of its gymnasts on at their best Friday because the No. 9 Missouri Tigers are coming to Coleman looking for the upset. This week's meet marks the eighth top 25 opponent this season. Bama is 3-4 in those meets with all of the wins happening at home.
Coach Duckworth hopes to see students packed into Coleman at 5 p.m. ready to cheer on the gymnastics team. It's student night Friday which means free t-shirts, free trucker hats, and free fried food!
The meet will air on the SEC Network. Doors will open at 3:30 p.m. with the meet starting at 5 p.m. C.T.