Falcons fans recently voted on the top individual performances for SPU student-athletes during 2011. The results are being presented this week. Today, we feature the No. 3 performance.

  • Highlight #5  |  • Highlight #4  |  • Highlight #2  |  • Highlight #1 


April 10, 2011

     • USAG Event Finals results (pdf)
     • Team Finals recap - Saturday, April 9

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Anissa Madrid captured the silver medal on the balance beam for the second straight season and Seattle Pacific teammate Corrine Wise collected the bronze on Sunday during the final day of the USA Gymnastics Women's Collegiate Championships at the Air Force Academy.

Four of the Falcons' five finalists earned a position on the awards platform that honored the top-six finishers in each event. Junior Samantha Taylor (San Carlos, Calif.) placed fifth on the uneven bars with a mark of 9.725 and senior Bri Steigauf (Richfield, Minn.) turned in a sixth-place score of 9.725 on the floor exercise.

A product of Kennedy High School near Seattle, Madrid received a second-place score of 9.775 on the beam. That was 0.025 points better than the mark of 9.750 that earned her the 2010 silver medal.

Melanie Standridge of Cornell registered a winning beam score of 9.850.

“I thought Anissa got under-scored today, but the girl that won was incredible and deserved to win,” said Laurel Tindall, who completed her 36th season as SPU's head coach. “I'm glad Anissa held on for second, and then Corrine getting third was great.”

Wise, a junior who prepped at West Seattle High School, tied for third place with Bridgeport's Emily Repko. Both of their beam routines were rewarded with scores of 9.700.

Madrid narrowly missed another visit to the awards platform. She posted a score of 9.675 on the bars to place seventh on that apparatus.

“Anissa pretty much hit every routine, every day,” Tindall said of Madrid's prolific performance at the three-day championship meet. “That was a great way to finish her senior year.”

SPU junior Sherah Veron (Broken Arrow, Okla.) finished 13th among floor competitors with a score of 9.600.

Seattle Pacific's five event finalists all garnered All-America accolades.

Monica Mesalles, from team champion Bridgeport, won both the vault (9.850) and floor (9.875) titles.

Cornell's Melanie Jorgensen and Brittany Dutton of Texas Woman's University each scored 9.800 to tie for top honors on the bars.

The USAG Collegiate Championships feature NCAA Division II members and Division I schools that choose to adhere to the limit of 7-1/2 scholarships. This year's championship field included five Division I schools and three Division II entries.

The NCAA Division II Falcons have won three national titles, in 1986, 1992 and 1997. They competed as a team at the championship meet for the 29th time in the last 30 years.

“It was a great weekend. We came in as total underdogs. I'm sure no one expected anything out of us seeing as we just barely qualified in,” Tindall said. “We proved ourselves. We proved that we were a better team than what our scores indicated from the season.”

The SPU gymnasts advanced through the eight-team preliminaries by compiling a second-place tally of 191.050 in their semifinal on Friday. On Saturday, they finished fourth in the team finals with a score of 190.950. That secured SPU's 19th top-four finish in the last 25 national championship meets.

“We were totally happy with fourth. We hadn't competed in the team finals since 2007 so nobody on this team had ever been in the team final,” said Tindall, who was already thinking ahead to the 2012 season.

“This sets the stage for next year, giving us valuable experience for our class next year of 10 seniors. They gained a lot of at experience at these championships.”


USA Gymnastics Women's Collegiate Championships
Individual Event Finals
Sunday, April 10, 2011
West Cadet Gym/Colorado Springs, Colo.

Vault
1, Monica Mesalles, Bridgeport, 9.850
2, Marcella Fallon, Texas Woman's, 9.787
3t, Kamri Riles, Bridgeport, 9.775
3t, Kaitlyn Watson, Temple, 9.775
5, Brittany Johnson, Texas Woman's, 9.750
6, Bethany Larimer, Texas Woman's, 9.737

Uneven Bars
1t, Melanie Jorgensen, Cornell, 9.800
1t, Brittany Dutton, Air Force, 9.800
3t, Brittany Johnson, Texas Woman's, 9.775
3t, Dana Bonincontri, Penn, 9.775
5, Samantha Taylor, Seattle Pacific, 9.725
6, Bethany Neczypor, Cornell, 9.700
7, Anissa Madrid, Seattle Pacific, 9.675

Balance Beam
1, Melanie Standridge, Cornell, 9.850
2, Anissa Madrid, Seattle Pacific, 9.775
3t, Corrine Wise, Seattle Pacific, 9.700
3t, Kristina Beck, William & Mary, 9.700
5, Emily Repko, Bridgeport, 9.625
6, Jessica Hanner, Air Force, 9.600

Floor Exercise
1, Monica Mesalles, Bridgeport, 9.875
2, Emily Luftey, Brown, 9.825
3, Kristin Edwards, Texas Woman's, 9.800
4t, Dana Bonincontri, Penn, 9.750
4t, Jessica Watts, Bridgeport, 9.750
6t, Bri Steigauf, Seattle Pacific, 9.725
6t, Emily Repko, Bridgeport, 9.725
6t, Marcella Fallon, Texas Woman's, 9.725
Also-13, Sherah Veron, Seattle Pacific, 9.600