What I Learned

During Accounting 255, the class titled Electronic Business Management, I learned how to do several things that I had previously not known how to do. Below is a list of the things that I learned.
1. I learned what website to go to in order to create a free blog.
2. I learned how to format a web page. For example, I learned how to put a picture in the background.
3. I learned about the different types of blog postings.
4. I learned what website to go to in order to create a website.
5. I learned how to create a mission statement.
6. I learned how to insert source code into a website.
7. I learned how to create a privacy policy.
8. I learned about pay pal.
9. And therefore learned how to create a pay pal account and put a pay pal icon onto a webpage.
10. I learned about pillar articles and that they can be written about something you know about.
11. I learned how to attach videos to a web page.
12. I learned how to create an eBook out of content that is already on a web page.
13. I learned how to submit a URL to a search engine.
14. I learned about ezine articles and where to submit them.
15. I learned how to add Amazon products to a web page.
16. I learned how to add ClickBank articles to a web page.
17. And I learned how to create Café Press products.

NCAA's Women's Gymnastics Championships

Twelve teams were selected to attend the NCAA Gymnastics National Championships and competed in two semifinal rounds. Six teams would compete in each; in the first session, University of Oklahoma, University of Michigan, UCLA, University of Arkansas, University of Georgia and the University of Illinois competed for the top three spots. Taking home that honor were the University of Oklahoma, the University of Michigan and UCLA scoring a 196.775, 196.700 and a 196.500 respectively. With UCLA being the defending champions, they needed to step up their game in order to take home the National title for the second year in a row. In the second session, the teams that competed were the University of Alabama, University of Nebraska, University of Utah, University of Florida, Oregon State University and Kent State University. Those earning the top three spots that moved on to the Super Six Finals Round were University of Alabama with a 197.050, the University of Nebraska with a 196.850 and the University of Utah with a 196.200. Surprisingly, the University of Florida, the team that has been first in the national rankings for the entire season, did not move on to the final round.
The competition was tight between the top two emergent teams, the University of Alabama and UCLA. Only .275 tenths separated the first and second place teams. University of Alabama scored a 197.650 and UCLA scored a 197.375. The University of Alabama edged out UCLA on the vault (49.575-49.500), the balance beam (49.350-49.200) and the floor exercise (49.450-49.350), but UCLA won the uneven bars (49.325-49.275).
Stanford won the NCAA Men’s Gymnastics National title, defeating Oklahoma (361.600), with a 363.450.

NCAA Men's Gymnastics

NCAA men’s gymnastics also participates in an NCAA National Competition. It will take place this weekend as well, on April 15th and 16th at Ohio State. Last year, Michigan won the title, scoring a 360.500, Stanford came in second and Oklahoma took third place. All three teams are participating in the National Competition this year.
Men’s competition is a little bit different than women’s. Women’s collegiate gymnastics still bases their scoring on a 10.0 scale. Men have converted to international scoring; in this case, judges create two scores and then add them together. One score is based on execution, which is still out of ten points and the other score is based on difficulty. Every skill that a gymnast does has a point value, and the more skills he does, the more points he gets. Adding those two scores together gives the gymnast his score. This creates situation where there can be no top score in men’s collegiate gymnastics; there is always the possibility of a higher score if more skills or more difficult skills are competed. Women can only receive a maximum team score of 200.00 based on four events; in the old system, men could have received a top score of 300.00. Now they are receiving scores close to 360 due to the combination of the execution and difficult scores.
This year’s 2011 qualifying teams include Oklahoma, Stanford, California, Illinois, Penn State, Michigan, Ohio State, Minnesota, the Air Force Academy, Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois-Chicago. Oklahoma’s regional qualifying score is 359.683 and is the top qualifier; Illinois-Chicago’s score is a 340.800 and marks the lowest score that was entered into the competition.

Season Injuries

Well, the season is officially over for the Illinois State University gymnastics team and it was a rough year. Three gymnasts suffered season-ending injuries this year; Robin Weissman tore most of the ligaments in her knee and Kim Caron and Jess Prousa both tore their Achilles tendons, all three girls required surgery.
The season was hampered with other injuries as well. Tori Sarantakis, although she did come back to compete in the final few meets, suffered a sprained ankle that took her out of the event where the Redbirds used her the most, the vault. Elise Gray also had a variety of injuries, ranging from her knees to her ankles, thanks to her vaults. Melissa Mann had problems with her collarbone after swinging bars and also sustained a sprained ankle on the balance beam.
Two of the all-arounders for the Redbirds were also taken out at the end of the season. The week before the State of Illinois Classic, Kim Genereux was vaulting and landed awkwardly on one of the mats, spraining her ankle. She was unable to compete in the all-around at state or conference, but was at least able to compete bars at SEMO. Erica Schick also had some trouble toward the end of season that ended up costing her a competing position at the NCAA Regionals. She was competing her dismount of bars and landed too far back on her heels, bruising them both. Schick competed beam and unfortunately fell, but did not compete any other events that day. At the conference competition, Erica was also able to compete bars along with Kim. Both had excellent routines.
All in all, the Redbirds could have used some of the girls they lost, but still did exceptionally well this season considering all of the injuries.

Team Banquet

Today was the End of the Year Banquet for ISU Gymnastics that was held at Redbird Arena at Illinois State University. There were four awards announced this year, as well as who would be the captains for the upcoming 2011 – 2012 season.
First, the award for most valuable newcomer was announced, which goes to a freshman or transfer every year. This year, the award went to freshman Jenna Bossle, who has competed in every meet this season on at least two events, vault and bars. For the last few events, she even competed on the balance beam.
Second was the award for most improved gymnast. This goes to the gymnast that the team feels has improved most over the year; for the second year in a row, Hannah Meyer won the award. Not only has she greatly improved, but she has also stepped up to compete two events for the Redbirds this year. She has led off for the Redbirds on the floor exercise for every competition.
Following that was the most valuable gymnast of the year award. After such an amazing senior season, Erica Schick won the award. She competed in the all-around for almost every meet for the Redbirds and has done so for the last four years she has been at Illinois State.
Finally, the Redbird Award was given to Hannah Deutsch. The Redbird Award is given to the gymnast who not only steps in the gym, but also does well academically and participates in community service.
Next year’s captains, in an interesting scenario, will be Kim Genereux and Apollonia Barrientos, both of whom will be juniors.

NCAA Regionals at University of Oklahoma, April 2nd, 2011

Hannah Deutsch competed in the NCAA Regional Competition on Saturday, April 2nd, 2011 at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, OK. This was her last competition, not only as a Redbird but also as a gymnast. She scored a 9.775 and took 15th place for her performance. This was her second performance on the balance beam in the NCAA Regionals, she competed last year and unfortunately fell, placing 39th in the overall competition.
But Coach Conkling felt she performed very well under pressure and said, “She has a really nice routine, so I’m proud of her.” Hannah also felt really good about her performance, even though she thought she could have done a little better. “It hasn’t quite hit me yet that my senior year is over. We had a lot of injuries this season but I’m just glad to go out on a high note,” she was quoted saying from GoRedbirds.com.
Of the teams that did compete in the overall team competition, Oklahoma took first place and has therefore qualified to compete in the NCAA Nationals. They had a team score of 197.350. Utah took second place with a score of 196.475 and also qualifies to Nationals, Washington took third after scoring a 195.300. New Hampshire followed with a 194.500 and Missouri came in fifth place, with a total score of 194.175.
The NCAA’s will be hosted by Kent State University on April 15th through April 17th. The qualifiers include Alabama, UCLA, Oklahoma, Oregon State, Florida, Michigan, Georgia, Utah, Nebraska, Arkansas, Illinois and Kent State.

Regional Qualifiers

In an interesting turn of events for the Redbirds, Erica Schick will no longer be competing in the all-around competition at the NCAA Regionals. At the State of Illinois Classic, Erica was dismounting off bars during her competitive routine and landed with almost stiff legs, causing her to land hard on her heels. On top of this, the four-inch thick mat that she landed on was not very padded and she bruised both of her heels. As a result, she only competed on the uneven bars and balance beam at this competition and only on bars at the MIC Conference Championships. As this injury is still bothersome, she has opted out of the Regional competition.
Because of this, a gymnast from Southeast Missouri State University will now compete in the individual all-around competition. The Regional Qualifying Score (discussed in a previous blog), is also used to determine which gymnasts will attend Regionals in the all-around competition and as an individual event specialist. The gymnast from SEMO was also the one who was ahead of Hannah Deutsch on the balance beam. Since that gymnast will now be competing in the all-around, the spot for beam specialist became available. Hannah Deutsch was previously an alternate, and now out of 72 gymnasts who had competed balance beam enough to have an RQS, she has qualified in the top spot in the South Central Region. Her RQS score was a 9.830, her average was a 9.717 (which is irrelevant in determining who attends Regionals) and her high score is a 9.925.