Salute to NCAA college sports (1 of 3)

The six athletes pictured are 1) Amy Boswell, women's volleyball, BYU; 2) Alex Lyon (the goaltender), men's hockey, Yale; 3) Nadia Podo (in white), women's lacrosse, Towson; 4) Jordan Sheffield, baseball, Vanderbilt; 5) Sophina DeJesus, gymnastics, UCLA; 6) Joergen Brath (from Norway), men's skiing, University of Utah

College Gymnastics List (1 of 4): The Seniors

This week we are posting lists for college gymnastics; the other sport where March Madness is underway as conference meets begin this upcoming weekend.

Here are ten seniors who are completing their college careers soon:

1) Shona Morgan, Stanford (pictured top; she's from Australia)

2) Mary Beth Lofgren, Utah (pictured center)

3) Olivia Courtney, UCLA (pictured bottom)

4) Audrey Harrison, Kentucky

5) Kristen Aloi, UNC

6) Hannah Fallanca, North Carolina State (Aloi and her both went to Mount Tabor High School in Winston-Salem, NC).

7) Mackenzie Caquatto, Florida (The Gators are the defending NCAA champions; we didn't spell her first name right in the tags section)

8) Lindsey Fowler, Alabama

9) Sarie Morrison, LSU

10) Katie O'Rourke, Pitt

http://www.collegegymfans.com

No Turkish Bride_It Was an April Fool's Joke

It is time to come clean and admit that I am NOT marrying a woman I met on the Internet named Sibel Turkan Atasoy who lives in Afyon, Turkey. She is a fictional name, and if any woman, living in Afyon, Turkey, or elsewhere actually has that name we will be floored.

I took the middle name from the great Turkish actress Turkan Soray.

I must also profess that I was April Fooled myself as University of Utah Utes gymnastics coach proclaimed that his team had landed the top gymnast in the world on collegegymnasts.com.

Interestingly enough, we asked Bing who was the top-ranke gymnast in the world and they said Sharaya Musser. She happens to be a highly-accomplished gymnast at Penn State, but we are 99-percent sure that she is not actually the 'best in the world.'

I guess this means so much for the power of search engines!

Status Update_ Does Modern Technology Really Work....

Status Update 1/29: "Last night, I was watching the Stanford-Utah meet live from Salt Lake City when the feed gave out during the last five minutes. I didn't know who won the meet until almost an hour later!"

Hence, the reason why I am going with an image of iconic Soviet/Belarusian Olympic gymnast Olga Korbut who won gold at the 1972 Munich Olympics. She is now a gymnastics teacher in Scotsdale, Ariz.

Stanford (ranked #2) won the narrow meet over Utah (ranked #4) by 196.825-196.500 margin in front of an impressive 13,835 fans at the Huntsman Center.

Ashley Morgan, daughter of baseball great Joe Morgan, Shelley Alexander and team captain Danielle Ikoma helped Stanford by nailing the beam in the final rotation. Morgan scored a very good 9.9 on that event.

The win by the Stanford Cardinal (remember no 's') marked the end of a 20-meet home winning streak by the Utes.

But, for Utah, freshman gymnast Nancy Damianova from Montreal, Canada, was quite a standout. And, I expect she could well be the next Daria Bijak (well, perhaps). One has to be impressed by the loyal following that Coach Greg Marsden has developed for the Utah gymnastics program.

In other college gym news, top-ranked Florida won its home meet over Penn State and our beloved N.C. State Wolfpack by a score of 197.5-195.3-194.075 (yes, I know the sport's scoring system is confusing for those who don't follow the sport, hey, it's even that way for me!). The Wolfpack were missing gymnasts Brittany Vontz and Brooke Barr, but Jess Panza scored an overall 9.775 for the 'Pack. Alaina Johnson and Ashanee Dickerson lead the way for Florida.

SIDEBAR: I am starting to wonder if someone at Fox Searchlight Pictures is reading my blog. The film "127 Hours" did finally open in the Roanoke, Va., and Greensboro, NC, area yesterday (see earlier entry). For those in Winston-Salem, I highly recommend seeing the film at the A/Peture Cinema, a place I've heard lots of good things about.

At the 9:30 Club in Washington DC- Cowboy Mouth

Since we periodically like to keep folks in the know as to who is playing at the hippest concert venues (we know of) within 200 miles of the swank hamlet of Boones Mill, Va., in rural Franklin County where we are blogging from on this very late Friday night (he's lying!), we thought we'd mention that the New Orleans rock band Cowboy Mouth will be at the famed 9:30 Club in Washington, DC, on Sept. 4.

The band, which took its name from a '70s Sam Shepard and Patti Smith stage play of the same name, are perhaps best known for their 1997 hit song "Jenny Says," but fans also like "Love of My Life" and "Everybody Loves Jill," in which audiences throw red spoons on stage.

The doors for the concert open at 8:00 p.m., and tickets are $25. The venue is located at 815 V. St. in the nation's capital and it seats up to 1,200 people.

Tickets can be purchased online at www.930.com or by calling 1-877-9849.

The web site urbandictionary.com is offering 9:30 Club trucker's hats for $19.95!

The club also hosts Big Head Todd and the Monsters on Sept. 23 and Teenage Fan Club on Oct. 2.

SIDEBAR: One of our favorite west coast bands Mates of State, based in San Francisco, is performing at The University of Utah on Sept. 17 before heading to New England for shows at The Paradise Rock Club in Boston on Sept. 26 and The Met in Pawtucket, RI, on Sept. 27.

NCAA Gymnastics Championships Underway in Florida

The NCAA Gymnastics Championships are underway at the University of Florida with UCLA, Utah and Oklahoma advancing to the Super Six. Three more teams competing right now will join them tomorrow night for the second and deciding round. According to reports, The University of Alabama is off to a stellar start tonight in the second round.

Alas, I could not be in Gainesville, Fla., for the finals which should be televised nationally sometime in May (traditionally CBS airs the championships though the coverage has been better some years than others).

I was deliberating what would be the best way to post an entry about the finals and for right now I will simply list my 24 favorite NCAA gymnasts who are competing in Gainesville in alphabetical order.

It should be pointed out that Nebraska, Oregon State and LSU's teams did not advance because those teams did not finish in the top three, but some gymnasts from those teams will likely compete in individual events which will be held on Saturday, the final day of the three-day meet with 12 teams.

The six teams competing tonight are the host Florida, Alabama, Michigan, Missouri, Arkansas and Stanford.

Here is the first part of my 24-gymnast list. The second part will be posted on my other blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time." The asteriks will denote gymnasts who competing individually without their teams.

The two pictured gymnasts here are Annie DiLuziou of Utah and Morgan Dennis of Alabama.

My four favorite overall gymnasts are Daria Bijak (Utah), Amanda Castillo (Florida), Sarah Shire (Missouri) and Vanessa Zamarripa (UCLA).

The first 12 gymnasts are:

Daria Bijak-Utah (senior)

Amanda Castillo-Florida (senior)

Jamie Deetscreek-Utah (senior)

Morgan Dennis- Alabama (senior)

Ashanee Dickerson- Florida (freshman)

Annie DiLuziou- Utah (senior)

Sabrina Franceschelli- LSU (senior)

Susan Jackson- LSU (senior)

Carly Janiga- Stanford (senior)

Jacquelyn Johnson- Utah (junior)

Kelly Knutson- Michigan (senior)