First rotation, highlights and lowlights

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Mattie Larson of Los Angeles bettered her first-round floor exercise score (which is already third-best) from 15.450 to 15.600 .... Chellsie Memmel had five release moves on uneven bars and upped her first-day score from 16.000 to 16.300, which earned her a big hug from her coach and dad, Andy.... And Samantha Peszek made the balance beam seem 4 feet wide instead of 4 inches. She had hardly a wobble and upped her first-round score from 15.400 to 16.000.

First-round leader Shawn Johnson got a 16.000 on her Yurchenko two-and-a-half twist vault, same as the first night; her top challenger, Nastia Liukin, also equaled her first-round vault score of 14.900.

Struggling the most in the first rotation was Jana Bieger, world all-around silver medalist two years ago. She missed the start of her floor exercise music. She was allowed to wait for the music to restart but then went out of bounds on her first tumbling pass and scored a 15.250.

-- Diane Pucin