Kentucky opened its 2005 gymnastics season in exciting fashion Saturday evening with the annual Blue/White Meet. The blue squad, led by senior Michelle Gales? 38.650 performance in the all-around, defeated the white squad 113.750-110.900 in Memorial Coliseum.

?Overall, the teams did great and it was a good opportunity to get the pre-meet jitters out,? UK head coach Mo Muhammad said. ?We had some very uncharacteristic mistakes that we need to clean up and we were a little timid. We need to work on being more aggressive.?

Gales led all Wildcats with her all-around score and her meet-high 9.8 on the floor exercise. She also was second on the bars with a 9.7 score. Sophomore Rachel Riley turned in an impressive showing with a 37.30 in the all-around with a top event score of 9.75 on the bars to lead the UK white.

?We did well with a couple of little mistakes,? Gales said. ?It was our first meet in front of a crowd. Once we clean everything up, we will be ready for ?Excite Nite?.?

The squads led off with vault, as sophomore Krystle Cook scored a 9.8 and senior Lindsay Cameron followed with a 9.55. The two squads were nearly identical on the bars with the UK blue taking the event 27.95-27.85. After the blue convincingly took the beam with a 28.60 score, the two squads thrived on their floor exercises, igniting the crowd. Gales? 9.8 on the floor followed by freshman Crissy Cannon?s 9.7 sparked the blue squad.

?The freshmen did a good job for their first time performing in an NCAA environment,? Muhammad said. ?We have some work to do, but it?s still early. We will count on the freshmen to step up and pull their weight in the future.?

Kentucky opens the regular season on Jan. 8, 2005 when it hosts Bowling Green in the annual ?Excite Nite?. Pre-meet festivities begin at 6 p.m., with meet time set for 7 p.m. in Memorial Coliseum.

– UK –