FAYETTEVILLE - A new team has spawned a new format for the SEC Gymnastics Championships, which will take place Saturday at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock.
No matter the format, the competition, on a raised platform like that used at the NCAA Championships, is the best collection of gymnastics teams short of the Super Six.
“I think this conference is so tough, if you have a mistake, you not only could not win the championship, I think you could drop down to fifth or sixth,” said Sarah Patterson, coach of defending NCAA champion Alabama.
The addition of Missouri brought an eighth gymnastics program to the conference and dictated a two-session format for the championships. The bottom four seeds - No. 12 Auburn, No. 16 Arkansas, No. 19 Kentucky and Missouri - will compete in the afternoon session at 2:05 p.m., while No. 1 Florida, No. 3 Alabama, No. 5 Georgia and No. 6 LSU will go at it in the 6 p.m. evening session.
“It would be nice if we were all at the same meet,but it’s almost impossible when you have eight teams,” Arkansas Co-Coach Mark Cook said. “It’s way too much down time with all the byes.
“We struggled a little bit in the past with the previous formats, so we’re looking forward to having the split sessions in some ways. The objective is to just go out and rock your session, do the best you can.”
The teams will hold open practice sessions Friday, with the first-session teams working between 1 p.m. and 2:48 p.m and the second-session programs practicing between 3:22 p.m. and 5:10 p.m.
Because there are only four events, having all eight teams in the same meet would have given half the teams byes on each rotation, created undesirable down time between events for theathletes and stretched the total competition time.
“None of us wanted to get into a four-hour format,” Auburn Coach Jeff Graba said.
First-year Georgia Coach Danna Durante said the conference needs to get a feel for how the two-session format plays out.
“It would be nice to have everybody on the floor at the same time, I’m just not sure that it’s actually possible,” she said. “It would create a great environment for the fans.”
Florida Coach Rhonda Faehn said all the coaches agreed in head coaches meetings that it would be too challenging to run all eight teams in the same session.
“As it was, before Missouri entered our conference, it was one of the longest and most grueling competitionsbecause of three byes,” Faehn said. “We really just could not ask our athletes to go into a four-bye competition, putting them at severe risk for potential injuries and so much down time. And having the fans sitting through a four-hour competition, it was just too much.”
The SEC champion is almost certain to emerge from the evening session. Defending national champion Alabama, defending SEC champion Florida, Georgia and LSU have combined to win all 32 previous SEC titles, half of them by Georgia, which has claimed 10 NCAA titles, including a five-season streak (2005-2009).
Alabama’s Patterson said she favored the SEC continuing to include all its gymnastics teams in the conference championship, unlike some sports that exclude some ofthe bottom finishers from competing in conference tournaments.
“I feel like we’re going to have, hopefully, at least six teams at the NCAA championships later on in April,” said Patterson, who guided the Crimson Tide to six NCAA titles in her 35 years, including the past two.
Florida is an eight-time SEC champion and claimed the title when the SEC meet was last held in North Little Rock in 2007.
“It was absolutely wonderful when we were here in 2007,” Faehn said. “We felt like Little Rock was welcoming to all programs, to all teams. … We have a great feeling, a great memory from having the championship there in 2007, and it was an incredible environment.”At a glance SEC GYMNASTICS CHAMPIONSHIPS WHEN Saturday. First session: 2:05 p.m. Second session: 6 p.m.
WHERE Verizon Arena, North Little Rock WHAT Two-session format on a raised platform WHO All eight SEC gymnastics programs. Session I: No 12 Auburn, No. 16 Arkansas, No. 19 Kentucky, Missouri. Session II: No. 1 Florida, No. 3 Alabama, No. 5 Georgia, No. 6 LSU.
Sports, Pages 19 on 03/21/2013