THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 26, 1996 TAG: 9606260447
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM ROBINSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BOSTON LENGTH: 50 lines
Virginia Beach's Lauri Illy began and ended Tuesday's preliminary round of the U.S. Olympic Rhythmic Gymnastics Trials in rousing, crowd-pleasing fashion.
It's the middle she'd love to have back.
Illy completed her night at the Wang Center for the Performing Arts in fifth place because of glaring mistakes in two of her four routines. She muffed a catch near the end of her ball performance and twice dropped one of her clubs to fall from second to fifth.
She trailed only two-time national champion Jessica Davis after an opening rope routine, which was awarded a 8.975 score.
But after stumbling in ball (8.80) and clubs (8.50), Illy rebounded to score 9.10 in ribbon. Illy, Alicia Albe and Tina Tharp were the only gymnasts to record a 9.0 aside from Davis, who leads heading into tonight's finals.
Davis finished with a composite score of 36.850. Second is the injured Natalie Lacuesta, who was scratched because of a stress fracture in her leg.
She is using her second-day score, 35.981, from last month's national championships.
Tharp and Albe are tied for third at 35.750 and Illy, at 14 the youngest of the seven active gymnasts, is next at 35.375.
``My consistency should've been better,'' Illy said. ``My scores are from 9.1 to 8.5; they should be within two-tenths of each other. That's consistency.''
Under these intense conditions, however, where only the winner goes to the Olympics, consistency is easier discussed than produced.
Even Davis wasn't immune. She scored well above 9.0 on her first three routines, but she dropped her ribbon once and then tossed it out of bounds.
Her 8.55 score prevented Davis from running away from the field.
``(Illy) has some making up to do, but she does four events tomorrow,'' said Illy's coach, Lana Lashoff.
``The margin is not that large for four events. You never know, it's a sport. I think at this point, the nerves, it's hard to control that.''
Illy, easily the most athletic of the gymnasts, saw the content of her routines draw high marks. Execution, though, counts for half of each score. And though Illy says ball is her best event, a blown catch at the nationals was largely responsible for her fifth-place finish there.
Tuesday, after a high toss, the ball glanced off Illy's right hand and bounded about 10 feet away. She gracefully recovered it and finished. That Illy still scored 8.80 attests to the overall strength of her routine.
``Ball is my strongest. No matter how much I mess up, it'll still be my strongest,'' Illy said.
The dropped ball and clubs, Illy said, were ``just freak mistakes. It just happens. It's nobody's fault but my own. But I'm going to come back.'' by CNB