UA's McDermott fails to advance to NCAA's all-around final session

Performing in the all-around for just the second time in her brief Arizona gymnastics career, McDermott struggled throughout the meet.

"Kristin had to go after Penn State (the team that she was going around with yesterday), and for her it is uncommon for her to go last," UA head coach Jim Gault said.

Gault said that McDermott seemed relaxed going into the meet, but he thought that he could see other reasons for her struggles.

"One of the other reasons that Kristin may not have been 'on' today was by going around with them (Penn State) and seeing the team cheering the other members on, which may have been hard for her. She just didn't have that spark today," Gault said. The remainder of the Arizona team did not qualify for the NCAA's and therefore were not in attendance.

McDermott started on the floor exercise and had problems. During her last tumbling pass, she had to put her hands down, causing her to lose 0.05 points on her routine, giving her a score of 9.15. On the uneven parallel bars McDermott again had problems when a mistake toward the end of her routine cost her a few more points, dropping her score to 9.675.

She also had scores of 9.45 on the vault and 9.725 on the balance beam.

"In a meet like this you have to be flawless. Today Kristin wasn't, and I'm having a hard time figuring out why," Gault said.