Round 2, highlights and lowlights

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The biggest crowd-pleaser was the bouncy floor exercise by Alicia Sacramone from nearby Winchester, Mass. Sacramone had a long television-mandated wait. The 20-year-old veteran jumped up and down nervously, then barely kept her toenails inbounds on her first pass, then she relaxed, vamped for the music and scored a 15.850, well above her first-round mark of 15.550.

Nastia Liukin has set the bar, um, high on uneven bars when she scored an American-best 17.050 on Thursday, Day 1 of the nationals. So when Liukin had to put her hand down on her landing, the crowd gasped. And yet her score went up, to 17.100. She drew within 0.700 of defending champion Shawn Johnson. Huh?

And Samantha Peszek nearly completed a rousing floor exercise routine until her final tumbling pass where she ended on her knees and saw her score drop from 15.200 in the first round to 14.750.

-- Diane Pucin