Redhawk gymnasts head for regional

~ Tucker, VanDerpool will compete in the all-around competition Saturday in Arkansas

Southeast Missouri State freshman gymnast Alyssa Tucker hit a "typical freshman" wall partway through the season, according to coach Kristi Ewasko.

At that point she realized the difficulty of being a gymnast at the collegiate level and started questioning whether she should be at Southeast, whether she should be competing in gymnastics.

"She hit that about midseason, and then we talked her through it. Her teammates were there for her, and then there just came this moment where you just saw things click," Ewasko said.

Ewasko couldn't pinpoint the exact moment, but Tucker got extremely specific when asked about it during practice Wednesday.

"Actually it was floor routine at Texas Woman's," Tucker said. "That was like the first time I actually truly had fun doing a floor routine, and like I felt the energy and everything was good. The score was good, the crowd was good, my teammates, coaches...it was really fun."

"I think me being more confident," Tucker said when asked what else it was that was different then. "Because floor for me is one of my weaker things confidence-wise, but that meet, after I nailed my first pass, I just decided to have fun and it just all flew."

Tucker posted a career-high 9.800 in the floor event at that meet Feb. 23, and she will look to continue to impress at the NCAA Regional competition in Fayetteville, Ark., on Saturday.

Senior Taryn Vanderpool will join Tucker in the all-around competition, competing for a second consecutive year.

While the ultimate goal was for the entire team to earn a berth to the regional round, Ewasko said she expected Vanderpool was capable of making a return trip individually.

Her expectation was not as high for Tucker, until she had the "aha moment" and began to realize her true potential. Coming into the season, not even Tucker expected to receive a bid to the regional.

"We were like, 'Wow, this athlete's going to give Taryn a run for her money. I mean, this freshman's going to give Taryn a run for her money,'" Ewasko said. "And she did. It was really impressive."

Ewasko appreciates the healthy competition she feels the two regional qualifiers have, and she encourages it of her athletes.

Tucker never really had thought of it as the two competing against each other.

"It's definitely pushed me," Vanderpool said about Tucker's success. "I'm very competitive on the inside. I try not to show it on the outside, but I'm very competitive. She definitely pushed me during the year to do my best, and in ways I've pushed her. I think that's helped us the entire year, especially as all-arounders trying to get the best all-around score.

"Going in [to regional] I think it's the same thing. We're going to try to push each other, but then do our best to encourage them even though they are your competition. ... It's kind of like a hidden competition between us. Unspoken."

While they may not talk about that, they do communicate on other matters.

Vanderpool has given her freshman counterpart some hints on what she can expect at regional, and is excited that she has a teammate to share the moment with.

"For instance, when you're an individual, you go last," Vanderpool said. "So you're No. 7 on every event, which is different for Alyssa. She was first on vault when we went as a team, so she'll be going from first to seventh. That makes a big difference in the gymnastics world because you have to wait, and waiting can make you cold and it can throw you off. I've given her little hints like that to prepare herself mentally."

Vanderpool will compete in the all-around for the first time since Feb. 21. She injured her knee during the warm-up before the Redhawks' meet against Michigan State on March 7, and her only competition since then was the bars and beam competition at the Midwest Independent Conference Championships on March 22. She posted a career-high 9.900 on the bars in the meet to claim a share of the event title.

"We took it slow," Ewasko said about Vanderpool's recovery. "We knew vault, and even floor, was not ready for competition. We kept her in on beam and bars for competition just to kind of stay in that mentality -- the pressure, the nerves. But in practices we had been slowly adding in vault and floor. She started tumbling quicker than she started vaulting. Then we just started with some base vaulting. Like I said, she's been doing the vault that she got hurt on the past two weeks. Today was her first day of doing it on a really firm surface, but she stuck two of them, so I would say she's probably ready to go."

Vanderpool is confident she's competed enough before her injury so that it will not be any more nerve-wracking than usual.

"I do get nervous, but it doesn't shake me," Vanderpool said. "I do that just by going out there and trying to do just what I practice in the gym, and since I've been to the regional setting before, I know exactly what to expect. Last year, I think I was a little bit nervous because it's such a big arena and there's so many teams there and so much big gymnastics that it was kind of overwhelming, but this year I kind of know that that's coming, and so I'm pretty excited to just go out there and enjoy it."

Tucker and Vanderpool enter the regional ranked third and fourth, respectively, based on their qualifying scores.

The top two teams and top two all-around competitors not from an advancing team receive a berth to the NCAA Championships, which are held in Birmingham, Ala., later this month. Event winners also advance.

Ewasko said Vanderpool's best shot at advancing would be to win the uneven bars or balance beam.

"She's clean, she hits handstands, she stays on," Ewasko said. "I mean, she's really tight, and her form is there. Those are her two events.

"I think Tucker's best chance is in the all-around. I think she could be a top all-arounder from a non-qualifying team."