NCAA Scoring Decision Wasn’t on Beam : Gymnastics: After error was detected, Alabama athlete tried to set the record straight, but officials said no.

All Gina Basile wanted was to set the record straight. So when the Alabama gymnast found out that a scoring error was the reason she tied for first place in the balance beam last week at the NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships, she tried to give up her share of the title. The NCAA wouldn’t let her.

“I understand the position of the NCAA, but I feel that I did what was right and what was in my heart,” Basile said Wednesday.

The decision prompted outrage from the coach of Missy Marlowe, the Utah gymnast who officially tied with Basile in the balance beam competition but should have won the title outright.

However, an official on the NCAA committee that oversaw the meet Saturday night said the decision could not be changed, and Marlowe’s coach, Greg Marsden, was partly to blame.

Cheryl Levick, associate athletic director at Stanford, recalled last year’s football game in which Colorado defeated Missouri on the final play of the game when the Buffaloes were inadvertently given an extra down.

“That’s a good way to compare it,” Levick said Wednesday in a telephone interview. “Everyone knows that Colorado got five downs, and it dramatically affected the game. Was that changed?”

The way Marsden sees it, the NCAA women’s gymnastics committee, which includes Levick, another administrator and two coaches, made one mistake by not detecting the error after the scores were tallied, then made things worse by not correcting it.

“It happened relatively soon after the fact,” he said. “It easily could have been corrected, and little would have been made of it at that point.”

Before the error was discovered by a newspaper reporter, Basile and Marlowe were said to be tied for first place with 9.875 points each. Basile’s score actually should have been 9.825, which would have dropped her into a third-place tie with Oregon State’s Chari Knight.

Also affected by the mistake were Georgia’s Hope Spivey, the overall NCAA champion who was third in the balance beam but should have been second, and Knight, who was fourth instead of tied for third. “It’s an unfortunate and awkward situation to be in,” Spivey said. “I really don’t understand how it got through in the first place. In my eyes, I see that I’m second.”

Basile conferred with her coach, Sarah Patterson, and they agreed Monday that the first-place award should be relinquished “in the spirit of true sportsmanship,” according to a university statement.

Levick said there is a three-step process designed to ensure accurate scores at the national meet. First, an independent scorekeeping group handled the figures. Then, the four judges and the meet referee reviewed the scoresheet to ensure its accuracy. Finally, the scoresheet was submitted to the involved schools’ coaches--including Marsden--for their signatures.

“The committee removes itself from the scoring process, which it needs to do,” she said. “Once the three systems have signed off and verified the scoresheets, that makes it official. The committee has no authority to tamper with the scores.”

Levick said normally a computer system would have assisted with the scoring, but a programming error rendered it useless on the night of the competition.

Marsden complained that it was impossible for each coach to verify more than 300 scores in enough time for the awards presentation. He said he did not even get a chance to look at the scoring Saturday night because he was told to go to the interview room. His wife, assistant coach Megan Marsden, signed the scoresheet.

“No one ever brought me the scoresheet,” he said. “What they did was they went to my second assistant, who has never signed a scoresheet in her entire life and shoved it in her face. She had no idea what she was doing. “

Levick presented a different picture. “We announced it publicly over the intercom to ensure that each coach with a person in the championship would come forward to sign the sheet,” she said. “There was adequate time, and it does not become official until everyone signs it. It is the coach’s responsibility to make sure he signs the sheet.”