The Crimson Tide didn't make the Super Six, but two Alabama gymnasts did their best to make up for the team failure by snagging national titles in event finals Saturday night.
Terin Humphrey recaptured her national uneven bars title by scoring a 9.95 on the event. The junior was the bars champion in 2005 before losing the title last season to Georgia's Courtney Kupets and Utah's Kristina Baskett, but she went out there just trying to do her best after a tumultuous season.
"This is exciting after everything I've had to overcome this year, with elbow surgery and having to come back so quick," said Humphrey, a former Olympian.
She went in for surgery on both elbows over Halloween weekend last year and came back slowly throughout the season, adding difficulty to her routine so that she would be competitive nationally in the later part of the season.
"Before she had the surgery, she had lost most of her range of motion (in both arms)," said Alabama coach Sarah Patterson. But after watching Humphrey's routine Saturday night and seeing the scores pop up, she felt confident that her gymnast would have a share of the title.
Humphrey was happy to have won the title against her old Olympics teammate, Kupets, noting the Georgia gymnast has won two all-around titles and three individual event titles in the past two seasons.
"Everybody knows we were devastated after not making the team finals last night," Patterson added of the team that finished third in last year's national championships. "We're just pleased that we can go home and end on a positive note."
That positive note includes a freshman that received perfect 10s from two judges in her floor performance, as Morgan Dennis finished with a 9.9625 and the floor title.
Dennis put up her strong score to the roars of an appreciative Utah crowd but had to watch four gymnasts compete after that score popped up. One of those gymnasts was Kupets, who eventually finished in second place with a 9.95.
Dennis watched as Kupets tumbled to near perfection and waited in heightened anticipation as the judges compiled the scores on the final routine of the night.
"I was really nervous. I knew she'd put up a big score (because she'd done a great routine)," said Dennis, who jumped for joy after seeing Kupets' 9.95 and learning that she was a national champion.
"Me and Terin talked about after what had happened that we could go home with something now," said Dennis, who agreed with her teammate that it would have been nice to have a solid team finish as well.
The team that was happy with its first place finish also celebrated a national event champion as Georgia's sophomore, Kupets, added one event title to an already full NCAA trophy case. She took home the vault with a 9.9188 final score.
"Today's competition was amazingly fun. It was crazy doing all four events for me," said the Bulldog who doesn't normally train both of her vaults all year long but had to pull a second vault out of the closet as most of the gymnasts did for the national vault competition.
"Your muscles know how to do it. You just have to remind yourself that you can do it," she noted of those second vaults that did in most of her competitors. But she was able to stick the landings on both attempts and walked away with the title.
Utah's Ashley Postell wrapped up the balance beam competition with a 9.9375 as she received a 10 from one of the six judges on that event. In all, three judges handed out perfect 10s throughout the individual competition.
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