• Event Finals Results (pdf)                       |   • Event Finals Scores (html)
 • VIDEO: Darian  Burns interview              |   • VIDEO: Darian  Burns floor routine
 • VIDEO: Darian  Burns bars routine         |   • VIDEO: Darian  Burns vault
 • VIDEO: Kristi  Hayashida beam routine  |   • VIDEO: Lauren  Glover floor routine
 • VIDEO: Ariana  Harger floor routine

SEATTLE – Darian Burns still remembers her very first college floor exercise routine back in January, when she met up with the surface, face first.
 
It tasted like carpet.
 
"My last tumbling pass, I completely ate the floor," the Seattle Pacific freshman said.
 
Motivated by that moment, Burns worked harder than ever to refine her routine. On Sunday, she got her just desserts.
 
It tasted like gold.

Burns came through with a crisp, clean performance inside the 40-by-40-foot blue square in the center of Brougham Pavilion to grab a piece of the crown in the individual event finals at the USA Gymnastics Women's Collegiate Championships.



Leading off the second half of the floor finals, Burns posted a career-best 9.900. That put her into a tie with Brianna Comport of Bridgeport – who got her 9.900 in leading off the first half – and none of the remaining eight competitors were able to match her performance.

"I've been working really hard on this routine," said Burns, who hails all the way from Atlanta. "The first meet, I had three (tumbling) passes, and I wanted to change it because my endurance wasn't high enough to do that. This is something I've worked the whole year at, and I'm really glad I could go out and perform it to my best potential today."
 
Burns is the third Falcon in the past four years to earn a share of the floor championship. Kai Tindall did so as a senior in 2014, and Ariana Harger tied for it last year as a sophomore.
 
During Sunday's final day of the three-day meet, Burns was one of five Seattle Pacific gymnasts to vie for individual titles. She was in three of the four events, placing seventh in the vault with a 9.7875, and tying for seventh on the bars with a 9.775. The vault was actually a last-minute addition after another competitor scratched out.
 
SPU senior Kristi Hayashida tied for fourth place on the balance beam with a 9.825. Breanna Beltran, a senior, concluded her career by taking 15th on the bars at 9.625. Harger wound up 12th on the floor at 9.650, and senior Lauren Glover was 14th on the floor at 9.575.


 
RESPONDING TO THE CHALLENGE
Assistant coach Carly Dockendorf, who works closely with Falcon floor exercise competitors, knew from the get-go that Burns had the capability of winning it all.
 
Matter of fact, Dockendorf was so confident that she let everyone in the gym know it during a preseason practice session last December.

 

"I told her in front of the whole team after one of our intrasquad meets," Dockendorf said. "She is just such a naturally talented athlete. She has so much personality and character outside of the gym, and in the gym, as well. I really wanted her to bring that out in her floor routine."
 
Burns took it to heart – even more so after things didn't finish up so well in that SPU debut on Jan. 13 in Brougham against Oregon State.
 
"I remember that exact moment, because I was so embarrassed," Burns said of the day when Dockendorf declared her a title contender. "She put me on the spot because I'd already been having mental issues with this routine. She put me on the spot in front of everyone and said what I had for my potential.
 
"And she was right."
 
Because Burns' first tumbling run – which she described as a front tuck-step out-roundoff back handspring-double pike – has so much difficulty and bonus credit, she can get by with just two such runs instead of the three that most other gymnasts use.

 

She nailed it on Sunday, and the rest of the routine flowed from there. When the 9.900 score appeared on readerboard in the far corner of the gym, a large group of Falcon fans seated high in the bleachers across the gym in the opposite corner let out a celebratory scream.
 
"I was really focusing on my landings – that was something my coach wanted me to focus on," Burns said. "Make sure they were clean so the judges didn't have so much to take off."

 

Added Dockendorf, "She got her routine designed to give her the opportunity to really show off her true personality.
 
"I think everyone who saw her routine today probably would agree."
 


CHALK DUST
All four individual national champions were new this year. … Kaitlin Green of Cornell went home a double-winner, taking the bars (9.900) and beam (9.900). … Kierstin Sokolowski of Lindenwood won the vault with a 9.9375. That capped a comeback from a major knee injury that knocked her out of action midway through the 2016 season and kept her sidelined for 10 months. … Sokolowski had the two highest scores of the three-day meet. In Saturday's team finals, she posted a 9.950 on the beam, then had Sunday's 9.9375 on the vault. … The 2018 nationals will be hosted by Texas Woman's University That means the Pioneers, who won the team title on Saturday night, will get to defend it in their hometown of Denton.