July 10, 2001

Download Free Acrobat Reader

Download Free Acrobat Reader

In 2000, for the first time in nine years, the UK GymKats missed qualifying for NCAA regional competition. Heading into the 2001 season, the team was determined to not let that happen again.

Many in collegiate athletics believe that facing the top teams in the country early and often only benefits a team by preparing it for the rigors of postseason action and making that team better, despite possible early season stumbles.

The 2001 GymKats wasted no time in the first meet of the season, facing Southeastern Conference-rival LSU, a team that finished ninth at the 2000 NCAA Championships. And stumble this team did.

UK got off to a good start in the home opener as Jennifer Simmons won the vault in her first meet back after sitting out most of the ’99 season with a broken ankle, while Mindy Smith tallied a 9.850 to claim the individual honors on beam. However, the GymKats soon found trouble, counting one fall on bars and two on beam to lose to the Tigers of LSU, 194.000-193.000. The night was still promising as Simmons claimed second in the all-around with a 38.775 and Julia Gore, the 2000 SEC Freshman of the Year, tallied a 38.400 for third.

The GymKats hit the road for their next SEC matchup, traveling to Auburn, Ala., to face another set of Tigers. It was a close battle throughout with UK’s Smith taking the beam and floor titles, while Gore finished first on vault and second in the all-around. The visitors looked destined for their first win of the season before last minute inquiries by AU gave the home team a narrow victory, 193.675-193.600.

With no rest for the weary, UK returned home to face No. 5 Michigan and 2000 U.S. Olympic Team Captain Elise Ray in the first meet of a three-meet home stand. The GymKats stayed close to the Wolverines through one rotation but could not hang on, dropping the meet 196.325-193.800. UK again was led by stellar performances on beam by Smith, who claimed her third beam title in as many meets, and Nicole Allen, who established a career best on beam. Simmons again led the way on vault, while Jessie Lemp and Katie Toups gave solid performances on bars.

The No. 25 GymKats welcomed No. 3 Georgia and George Washington to Memorial Coliseum for what would prove to be the turning point of the season for UK. Georgia entered the season coming off a third-place finish at the 2000 NCAA Championships and was primed to improve. However, after two rotations, the highly ranked Bulldogs had suffered three falls on beam and found themselves tied with UK.

Getting a 9.800 each from Smith, Lemp and Gore on beam, UK finally made the necessary corrections on the apparatus to count no falls for the first time. The season-high score of 48.800 kept the GymKats close, but the Gym Dogs pulled away in the final rotation for the 195.500-193.675 victory. With a 190.800 from GW, UK also earned its first win and with new-found confidence would not count a lower total score the rest of the season.

“We were ecstatic after two rotations,” Little said. “The team got a taste of what it feels like to be even with a strong team. They now have to learn how to maintain that competitive edge at all times.”

However, UK faced a daunting task, replacing all-arounder Gore. In the final rotation, she injured her left knee during a tumbling pass on floor, an injury that would keep her out of the lineup the rest of the season.

Freshman Aronda Primault moved into the all-around lineup and UK had its breakthrough performance against No. 22 Illinois, matching the school-record team score to drop the Fighting Illini, 195.875-193.525. The GymKats claimed individual honors on each apparatus and the all-around. Simmons scored a 9.850 to win vault, Toups tallied a 9.825 to claim the bars title, Smith was tops on beam with a 9.875 and Primault took first on floor with a 9.875 and first in the all-around with a 39.075. With her AA performance, Primault was named the SEC Gymnast of the Week.

The beam finally became a blessing rather than a burden for the GymKats as they scored a 48.825, the fifth-highest beam total in school history, while they also proved their mettle on the mats with a 49.200 score on floor, the third-best floor score in school history. Allen performed well on the night tallying a 9.800 on beam and a 9.850 on floor. Also contributing to the high floor total was Coleman and Simmons, who each matched Allen’s score of 9.850.

“This was a huge emotional victory for us,” Little said. “We’ve pushed these athletes, and they were frustrated. We knew they were capable of this type of performance, and they showed it.”

With things moving in the right direction midway through the season, UK took its No. 23 national ranking to Colorado to face the No. 18 Denver Pioneers. Primault finished third in the all-around with a 38.700 to pace the GymKats, while the team scored its second-best totals of the season on bars and vault. Julie Joy, another freshman contributor, led the way on bars, and Melanie Zaharias returned to her home state with a 9.800 on vault. However, UK’s 194.475, its second best of the season, was not enough to overcome UD’s 195.100.

Coming off a loss can be a tough task for any team, but even more so when it must travel to another highly ranked opponent. For UK, that meant a trip to No. 2 Alabama. But the GymKats were anything but nervous.

So confident were these athletes that they put together solid performances on bars and vault, led by Lemp’s 9.825 bar routine and Coleman’s 9.850 on vault. With a 48.825 on bars and a 48.725 on vault by UK, the GymKats and Tide were separated by only two-tenths of a point. In the third rotatation, Bama tallied some unfortunate deductions on beam as UK scored a 48.925 on floor with the help of a 9.850 from Joy, a 9.825 from Coleman and a 9.800 from Primault to take a 0.075 point advantage.

In front of more than 7,000 Alabama fans, the GymKats ended the evening on the apparatus that had given them much trouble early on, trouble they had begun to overcome. Their response was to score a school-record beam total of 49.350 on the heels of a career-high 9.925 each by Smith and Zaharias. However, the Tide completed competition on their best event, the floor exercise, tallying a 49.500 to claim the victory, 195.900-195.825. With a 39.125, Primault won her second all-around competition of the season.

“That was the best performance by any team I’ve ever coached,” Little said. “I’m so impressed with our performance. Moving to balance beam last, this team really held together and shined.”

UK seemed to be living by the notion of face the best and improve, but a trip to Gainesville to face Florida, Iowa State and Ball State slowed the progress a bit. The beam again was the downfall for the GymKats as they were forced to count three falls for a 47.450, the lowest beam score of the season. However, they rallied to score a 49.025 on the floor exercise in the next rotation, led by Primault’s 9.900, and a 48.700 on vault, paced by Coleman’s first-place 9.825, to total 193.700, finishing just ahead of Ball State for third place.

Memorial Coliseum greeted UK a week later for its last home meet of the season, and the GymKats did not disappoint the home crowd. Saying goodbye to seniors Coleman and Susan Buffington, the GymKats scored a 195.825, the second-highest score in school history to top Bowling Green, Central Michigan and Pittsburgh, and regain their balance for the upcoming postseason. The GymKats scored 49.000 or better in three events, while three gymnasts tallied a 9.900 on four occasions to lead UK to the victory.Primault led the way with a career-high 39.325 to win the all-around honors, while Joy scored a career-high 38.850 to finish fourth in just her second AA performance of the season. Joy, Smith and Primault each scored a career-high 9.900 on floor to lead the team to a 49.150, the fourth-best floor total in school history. On vault, Primault tallied a 9.900, Coleman added a 9.875 in her last home meet as a GymKat and Simmons chipped in a 9.825 to help UK to a 49.150, while the team achieved a 49.000 on bars with the help of a 9.875 from Joy and a 9.825 each from Lemp and Primault.

To close out the regular season, UK traveled to Tempe, Ariz., for its toughest meet of the season against three top-12 teams. In a meet that saw No. 8 Arizona State and No. 7 Nebraska battle for first the entire evening, the GymKats overcame the loss of Allen to an injury in warm-ups and put together their strongest vault performance of the year to overtake No. 12 Iowa, 194.350-193.425, for third place.

In the third rotation of the evening, UK scored a season low on floor, an event that had been good for the GymKats the previous few weeks, to slip to fourth place. However, Simmons hit her vault to score a 9.900 to lead the team past the Hawkeyes.

With the strong finish to the regular season, UK increased its regional qualifying score to 194.855 for sixth place in the Central Region. With 36 spots available in the first round of NCAA competition and six regions in the country, on average six teams from each region qualify for NCAAs. However, the actual number of teams that qualify from each region is based on this formula: the number of teams ranked in the top 18 plus the next three. Only two teams in the Central Region were ranked in the top 18, so only five teams could qualify.

Therefore, being sixth in the region was not enough for UK, and the GymKats were again faced with the prospect of ending the season at the SEC Championships. Heading to Birmingham, Ala., they needed a 195.500 to surpass Michigan State for that last qualifying spot. In front of a crowd of more than 5,000 fans cheering mostly for Alabama and Georgia, the GymKats finished fifth among the six league schools, but more importantly, they scored a 195.850.

At SECs, UK opened up one of its most important meets in recent history on bars and responded with a solid 48.750 effort behind a 9.850 from Toups. The GymKats moved on to the beam where Smith again led the team, this time to a score of 48.825, with a 9.850, while Simmons added a 9.825. In the third rotation on floor, they stepped it up to a new level, scoring a 49.300, the second-best floor total in school history. Smith, Joy and Primault each tallied a 9.875 while Coleman scored a 9.850 (a career high) and Simmons scored a 9.825. Rounding out the scoring was the team’s second-best effort of the season on vault, a 48.975, headed up by a 9.825 from Coleman and a 9.800 from Joy, Toups and Zaharias.

Needing a 195.500 to surpass MSU, their total of 195.850 not only overtook the Spartans for fifth in the region but also made it mathematically impossible for MSU to move back ahead of UK, returning the team to NCAA competition.

The GymKats traveled back to Tuscaloosa, the site of their near upset of the Crimson Tide earlier in the season, facing No. 4 Alabama, No. 9 Arizona State, No. 16 Minnesota, No. 20 Kent State and No. 21 Ohio State at regionals. Again, UK gave a solid performance, scoring a 195.150 to finish fourth, just eight-tenths of a point away from second place and a spot at nationals.

Before the competition even started, however, concern arose about whether this team would be able to overcome another obstacle – the loss of Coleman. Coleman had been an important member of the UK vault and floor lineups and had been performing extremely well leading up to the meet, but a case of whiplash suffered during a warm-up vault threatened to end her career early and hinder the GymKats chances.

Showing the will and desire this team had shown all season long, Coleman regrouped and competed in both events. Along with Joy, she scored a 9.825 that, added to the 9.800 from Smith and Primault, pushed the GymKats past Ohio State and into fourth place heading into the final rotation on vault. There, Coleman scored a 9.800 to go along with Simmons’ 9.825 and Zaharias’ 9.800 to give UK the fourth-place finish. Coleman’s 9.825 tied Simmons for fifth place.

In the all-around competition, Primault completed a stellar freshman season with a 39.075 to finish in seventh place, missing an at-large berth to nationals by a tenth of a point. Simmons completed her comeback season with a 38.650 for ninth place. Adding to the individual honors was Smith, whose 9.850 on beam, her 16th consecutive score of 9.800 or better, tied her for sixth in the region.

“Finishing only eight-tenths of a point from qualifying for nationals is tremendous progress,” Little said. “This was a very successful season, and we are on the verge of greater things.”

In a season that began with expectations of reaching regional competition once again, these GymKats started slowly but gelled at the right time and came together as the unit they knew they could be. They wound up the season with the 13th-best score in NCAA regional competition and finished ranked 16th after nationals. They matched the best team total in school history once and tied or surpassed the second-best team total in school history three times. Eight of nine returning GymKats who saw action this season recorded a career best on at least one apparatus, with three gaining career highs on at least two. And on 13 occasions, these GymKats scored an event or overall total that ranks in the top six all time at UK.

“These athletes gained tremendous ground with what they accomplished this year,” Little said. “I really have to commend them for going from a No. 40 ranking at the end of last season to 13th this year. We got ourselves back up to the point where it will help recruiting and will help put us back where we feel we rightfully belong, in the top 10 in the country. They did what they needed to do to put themselves back in a position where they gained respect and national attention.”

However, it is not just the coach who realizes the progress this team made, the GymKats saw it as well.

“We proved to a lot of people that we are an incredible team and they can’t just write us off anymore,” Smith said.Allen added, “We got a taste of what it is like to be a threat to some of those powerhouse schools.”

“We said last year that we didn’t want another year like that,” Toups said, “and we took the steps to prevent that from happening again. We started the season a little slow, but all in all we had a very strong finish. There was so much fight in this team this year.”

Finally, Beth Coleman summed up the season, “Every girl on the team was dedicated to improving and surpassing everything we accomplished the year before. The 2001 season was a success.”