Courtesy of Air Force Athletics

BATON ROUGE, La. – With a shot at representing Air Force Women’s Gymnastics at nationals for the first time in program history on the line on Thursday night in Baton Rouge, the Falcon trio of senior Kylee Greene, junior Maggie Slife and sophomore Alyssa Bigler each competed on the biggest stage of their athletic careers.

In the second session of regional semifinals at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, the Falcons each competed as all arounders for the single regional individual all-around championship bid. Slife ended the evening scoring a 39.550, scoring the second-highest four-event score from session II behind LSU’s Kailin Chio (39.825), who scored a pair of perfect 10.0s on both vault and floor. Bigler and Greene both ended the evening scoring 38.425 and 37.600, finishing in in sixth and seventh respectively.

In the first rotation, Greene, rotating with host LSU, opened her evening on vault, where the senior hit a 9.775. Slife dazzled on beam in her opening event, leading the Auburn lineup with a 9.900. Bigler opened her night on bars, scoring a 9.775 at the end of the lineup with Clemson. On event No. 2, Slife earned a 9.825 on floor, which proved to be a season low, but ultimately was buoyed by 9.900-plus scores in her other three events.

On vault, Slife had a slight hop on a big Yurchenko full but ultimately was good for her second 9.900 of the evening and a share of second place. Bigler, as the final gymnast competing in the third rotation, scored a 9.850 on floor, adding .250 to her first-round tally.

In the Falcons’ final event of the night, Bigler had slight step out on her own Yurkchenko full, ending the night scoring a 9.700. Slife stuck on a huge full-twisting double back on bars to close out her evening, earning a 9.925 which tied for second place in the evening session and was second highest of both semifinal sessions. Greene, the final gymnast of the evening to perform  and with all 4,000 sets of eyes fixed on her, put on a show in her final collegiate floor routine, scoring a 9.850.

Up Next:
Air Force awaits results from the regional final on Saturday in Baton Rouge to determine individual eligibility for the national championship, held at Dickey’s Arena in Fort Worth, Texas on Apr. 18. The top all-arounder and top event specialist in each region from non-advancing teams will qualify and advance.