Bermuda, what a beautiful place
Paget, Bermuda 1/20/00 .......
We have been lucky enough to spend the last couple of days in Bermuda. We began planning this trip in February last year and we are very thankful to everyone that was involved in helping us get here. At the moment, there is deep freeze in the Northeast where the temperature is ranging from 5 below to 15 degrees. The same cold is affecting the island where it is anywhere from 50 to 60 degrees, windy and rain on and off. Even though it hasn't been beach weather, it has not stopped us from taking full advantage of what the island has to offer. Today, the entire team rented motor-scooter (two people per bike) and we rode around the island prior to 'scooting' to the meet. Since it is a law that you must wear a helmet when riding a motor-scooter, the entire team had a white helmet which they wore during the march-in to the meet. We weren't quite sure how the crowd was going to respond, but all of the Bermudians actually stood up and cheered. And so, we go to the meet...
The meet was held at the Bermuda College gymnasium in front of about 250 spectators from the island that were very appreciative of college gymnastics. The organizers of the meet put together a great event and a nice march-in for the three teams. This night, it was Cornell, University of Alaska and MIT taking the floor. There were two events running at the same time with the third team on a bye which allowed us to see some gymnastics from the other teams. The meet began with MIT on vault and Cornell on bars while Alaska was on a bye. After what seems like a very long time, senior Stephanie Cheng was able to put two solid handspring fulls on her feet and managed an 8.7 for her highest vault score of the year. Her vault helped the team to a 42.30 total on the event while Cornell was racking up a 43.375 on bars with some quality routines. In fact, Cornell was still riding high off of beating U-Penn the weekend before for the first time in 25 years or so.
In the second rotation, MIT moved to bars, Alaska to vault and Cornell to the bye. Our squad had a tough time adjusting to the free-standing set of bars and consequently, Steph, Karla Maguire '01, and Carrie Garceau '03 all took a fall from the apparatus. Amy Shui '02 had to go with a simpler dismount which also hurt her score. When all things were said and done MIT had amassed a 36.575 on bars while Alaska was vaulting several handspring-front vaults to a total of 45.50. MIT moved to a bye and watched Cornell vault to a 44.80 total and Alaska post a 43.025 on bars including a great 9.475 performance from Rachel Glover. So, after two events, the totals read Alaska 88.525, Cornell 88.175 and MIT 78.875
Next for MIT was the beam, Alaska to floor and Cornell to a bye. The team performed well on beam although most everyone took a slip. The best routine was turned in by Amy for an 8.6 and even that included a few too many wobbles. Alaska, in the meantime, was dancing up a 45.50 total on floor. Another bye for MIT next while Cornell took the floor (45.95) including a wonderful routine from Cassandra Joseph (9.525) and Alaska finished up on beam (42.975). The last rotation put MIT on floor and Cornell on beam. The team from Cornell is known to have a reputationn for great beam, and even though their two best athletes fell, they still managed a 45.75 total on that event and put the meet out of reach with a 179.875 total. Alaska finished with a 177.00 and MIT put together a good six for six performance for a 44.00 total on floor and a 163.425 overall.
Except for bars, it was a step up from our previous meet even though the team total did not reflect the improvement. The nice thing about today is that we get to do it all again tomorrow at the Bermuda Triangle Challenge with University of Nebraska, Brown, and NC State being added to the mix. What that means for us is another day riding motor-scooters in beautiful Bermuda