Russ Isabella Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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Utah dominated the field last night (UCLA, Stanford and Oregon State also competed in the evening session) to win its second consecutive Pac-12 Championship, but not without some late drama of the sort you never want to see. On a night when the men’s basketball team earned a spot in the Sweet-16, and the gymnastics team continued its climb to the top in front of another record crowd, it was heartbreaking that one of its senior stars suffered a career ending injury. It happened late, and emotions that already were high took a sudden, unexpected and rather intense turn. But the remaining seniors showed their poise by stepping up and closing out the meet with a bang. It was a bittersweet night.
Here are some photos. A few things of note: First, I didn’t have floor access and was limited to the first two rows of seats in a limited number of sections in the arena. Moving from section to section was a major PITA, but necessary. Second, from the position I chose for shooting bars, it seemed that using the Zone AF option might serve me well, so that’s what I did. I’ll let the images tell the story from there.
C&C welcome. (Blog post here.)
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http://www.russisabellaphotography.com/Gymnastics2015/PAC-12.1.JPG |
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http://www.russisabellaphotography.com/Gymnastics2015/PAC-12.2.JPG |
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http://www.russisabellaphotography.com/Gymnastics2015/PAC-12.3.JPG |
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http://www.russisabellaphotography.com/Gymnastics2015/PAC-12.5.JPG |
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http://www.russisabellaphotography.com/Gymnastics2015/PAC-12.8.JPG |
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http://www.russisabellaphotography.com/Gymnastics2015/PAC-12.9.JPG |
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http://www.russisabellaphotography.com/Gymnastics2015/PAC-12.10.JPG |
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http://www.russisabellaphotography.com/Gymnastics2015/PAC-12.18.JPG |
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http://www.russisabellaphotography.com/Gymnastics2015/PAC-12.24.JPG |
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http://www.russisabellaphotography.com/Gymnastics2015/PAC-12.25.JPG |
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http://www.russisabellaphotography.com/Gymnastics2015/PAC-12.26.JPG |
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12. This is what you never want to see. A high-powered all-around gymnast who scored a 10 on vault earlier in the night. Her Achilles gave out as she launched into one of her tumbling moves and it's a wonder she managed to find her way back to the mat without doing a lot more serious damage. The meet was well in hand by this point as she was third in the (last) floor rotation, but when one of your superstars scores a 1.0 and three more suddenly grieving athletes are still to compete, nothing is certain. The three seniors scored 9.90, 9.95 and 9.925 to leave no doubt of the outcome, and, no surprise, each became quite emotional upon completion of their routines.
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http://www.russisabellaphotography.com/Gymnastics2015/PAC-12.38.JPG |
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http://www.russisabellaphotography.com/Gymnastics2015/PAC-12.40.JPG |
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http://www.russisabellaphotography.com/Gymnastics2015/PAC-12.42.JPG |
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http://www.russisabellaphotography.com/Gymnastics2015/PAC-12.44.JPG |
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http://www.russisabellaphotography.com/Gymnastics2015/PAC-12.46.JPG |
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17. The genius behind all of it, Greg Marsden, who with his wife who is co-head coach, received the PAC-12 Coach of the Year award.
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http://www.russisabellaphotography.com/Gymnastics2015/PAC-12.51.JPG |
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http://www.russisabellaphotography.com/Gymnastics2015/PAC-12.52.JPG |
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