The
1998 women's final was intense and entertaining. There were less teams than usual this
year. That left a spot open in the finals for Juniors Nikki and Deanna Ross, 11 years old
and 8 years old. They made the finals with an entertaining "as cute as can be"
routine to the music of April Showers from the Bambi soundtrack. The Ross' have amazing
skills for their age, especially Nikki who is blowing eveyone's minds. Their routine
started with two discs, demonstrating their delaying and catching skills. During one
section in the middle Nikki performed a series of catches, kicks, tips and delays to music
breaks. The catches included bad attitudes, chair catches and ended with the gitis. These
girls that aren't even teenagers even won the Music Choreography category over the other
three women's teams. Rick Ross certainly deserves some credit as head choreographer
(and dad).
The next team out and finishing in third were tournament directors Lisa Hunrichs and Mary Lowry. The duo had some trouble spots in the first half of their routine but got very hot near the end. When they were on, their routine was smooth, consecutive and seamless. A great job considering the mind-boggling nature of being TD at such a huge and successful event.
Next out was Cindy Kruger and Brenda Savage. They immediately got off to a good
start with a nice series of coops. However, they started getting even hotter during the
first individual section when Cindy hit a double spinning barrel catch. Other highlights
included Brenda pulling off a bad attitude delay off a throw, and an against the spin
counter juice pull, once again, OFF THE THROW! Both of them were on in a big way, on the
edge and hitting almost everything they tried. The excitement was unbelievable.
Up last was Judy Robbins and Amy Bekken. With the pressure on, they played solid. Their routine was well choreagraphed, intricate, involved use of both spins, turn overs and had intense energy throughout. Judy hit a double spinning behind the back osis pull, and a spinning scooter pull. Amy was smooth and played with great form and athleticism. A few drops by the pair in the last thirty seconds, however, left the door open.
It looked like it was going to be close between the last two teams. That's an understatement. Brenda Savage and Cindy Kruger won they're first World Championship title by 2 tenths of a point.
Cindy Kruger has been improving every year and has come a long way especially in the last two years. Her game keeps getting smoother and smoother. Brenda Savage has great flexibility, an very aggressive "go for it" style, huge moves, has improved her catch ratio, and has lots of talent. This pair from Seattle should be a shred factor for years to come.
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