St. Louis, Day 3: Finals

Wow, where to even begin?

Cale and I were once again woken up by baby Annaliese at our door and we went downstairs to have breakfast with the family.  You could sense a little bit of tension as we were all trying to control our nerves.  We didn't have too much time afterwards to go back up and get ready because the competition started at 11:30 and of course we wanted to be there early.  We left the hotel and arrived at the venue but because Annaliese was taking a nap we spent some quality bonding time in the car playing games and talking.  It was really fun and allowed the baby to get some much needed sleep so she wouldn't be so fussy in the arena.

We finally got out of the car and made our way to the gate where we had to wait another 15 minutes or so for the doors to open.  At this point it was 10:30 and we were all pacing back and forth just itching to get inside.  I sat next to Cale once we got our seats because he is my meet buddy and we feed off of each other during the competition.  It's nice because he's an expert on pretty much everything gymnastics related so we talk a lot about the people on the floor and the routines they are performing.  We both tried to make things light as the warm-up went on because otherwise we would have gone crazy with nervousness.

The competition finally started and Alex and the gang had vault first.  This proved to be a much better rotation schedule as the boys were able to use their adrenaline and go all out in the first rotation.  Both Alex and Sean had amazing vaults (Sean ended up being crowned national champion, wow!) and it was a great way to start the competition.  Alex was really clean and went 16.2 (watch here:  Alex Vault, Day 2).  I think Cale was about to pee his pants in anticipation but everything went smoothly and after that the boys went on to pbars.  Everyone seemed to have good routines but there were little stumbles here and there.  High bar was exciting (Alex High Bar, Day 2) and Cale and I were jumping up and down and screaming throughout Alex's routine (you can actually see us in the video if you look closely).  Releases were clean, pirouettes ended up where they needed to be, and the dismount was pretty close to perfect.  I think at that point we knew Alex was in his element and just needed to carry everything over to floor.

All of the Stanford boys know how to tumble, so the floor rotation was very entertaining.  It was also the point in the competition that we realized that most of the major players were making mistakes while Alex kept his game face on, seized the opportunity, and charged through.  He had a great floor routine to keep up the momentum (Alex Floor, Day 2) and we were so excited and were cheering so loud that the bloggers on the floor of the meet took a moment to point us out:  "Alex Buscaglia, Floor:  'Hit routine to the delight of his family/friends, who give him a standing ovation in the crowd after his last pass.'"  It was just so great to see things come together and we were able to have a bit of a breather as he moved on to pommels and rings in the last rotation.

After it was all said and done (6-for-6!!) it was time to wait.  The top six people in the all-around automatically qualified on to trials, as did the next four people with the highest number of points (using a different, very confusing system).  We knew who the all-arounders were (none of the Stanford guys were in this top 6), but didn't know how things were going on the points scale.  Cale was hunched over his phone, the rest of the family was talking away, and I was just looking over to where the boys were standing.  I couldn't stand still and my legs were shaking as we waited but finally I saw Brett (Alex's coach) throw his hands up in the air before turning to Alex and giving him a big hug.  Alex put on the national team jacket and at that point I was shaking Cale and saying "He did it, he did it!" over and over again.  It caught on as the rest of the family came to the realization that he qualified and all of a sudden there was screaming, laughter, and tears all at the same time.  I could not believe the emotion that swept over me as I started to cry; I was just overwhelmed with happiness and I'm not sure I've ever felt more proud of anything in my entire life.  We were able to catch his eye for a moment and we were all clapping and cheering at the top of our lungs.  It was great to see him march out onto the floor with the rest of the national team knowing that all the hard work and sacrifice paid off.

When we were finally able to meet up with him after the competition, there was hugging and clapping and lots of picture taking at dinner.  I don't think you could wipe the smile off our faces if you tried.  Eventually family members had to leave and in the end it was just Cale and I left so we hung out until about 10pm before heading back to our hotel to pack up and get ready for our early morning trip back home.  Flying back to San Jose this morning made me think about how we are going to be gearing up to do this all again in about three weeks!!  It's so incredibly exciting and I can't believe that it's all happening in our hometown.  The pieces are falling into place and it's awesome to be right in the middle of it all.

Official article from USAG regarding members of the national team and qualifiers to olympic trials:  USAG Article.

No rest for the weary; Cale has a final tomorrow morning, it's off to work for me, and back to practice for Alex.  He'll be the lone guy from the group of four he traveled with to Championships to compete at Trials, but I'm pretty sure he'll have lots of motivation to get through workouts even though he'll be alone.  I'm pretty sure I'm still on cloud nine and my alarm clock tomorrow morning is going to be a rude awakening, but AHHHH, to say it was a great weekend is a major understatement :)