Whew!! The season has come to a close, and we are all very pleased with how things finished up for us this year. Making it back to the "Super Six" was awesome! The field of teams was unbelievable this year. Six teams in one meet with only two falls among them and neither fall counted. So all six teams had good meets and only one could win! I think if we had done that meet six different times, six different teams could have won. That is how close all of the teams really are.
My hat is off to Georgia, they were on fire!! Beam was the event that
was the separator for the teams. Most of us had a few bobbles, but no
one counted a fall. We went 24 for 24, so I can't ask for much more than
that. I am very proud of this team! We had a very strong season and were
so consistent all year long! So consistent in fact that our team score
was identical from prelims to finals at Nationals - 196.575 on both days!
We will miss our seniors as they move on to life after gymnastics. Elise,
Chelsea, Shanna, and Kara - we are so grateful for all you have done for
our program and hope you will always remain part of our Michigan gymnastics
family! Lauren Mirkovich has decided that she will
return for her 5th year! She sat out her freshman year due to a knee injury,
so now she wants to come back and give it one last shot!! She will help
us on both bars and vault and hopes to work her way back into the floor
line up as well. We are excited to have her back!
We also look forward to our new class of freshmen who will be joining
us. They are still finishing their club seasons and will be hitting the
books for those last high school finals coming up. It is amazing how quickly
our focus has to change from our season straight into recruiting for the
2007 class already! Can you believe it? Our 2006 freshmen are still in
high school, and we are already looking for the class of 2007! Wow!!
I would like to thank a few people. First, Anjel for working so hard
and bringing you all of this information, such as these briefings, as
well as her weekly reports and online live scoring! Our booster club for
being sooooooooooo awesome!!! You guys are the best!!! Amy our president,
Rishi our vice president, Dave our photographer, Jane, Jim (and the U
of M credit union crew), Bruce, Jeffrey etc... as well as our new student
"GymFantry" group!!! I can't forget True Blue Tom! We could
not have made it as far as we did without all of you! Another thank you
to Tom Brooks our marketing person, who helped us finish this season ranked
4th
in the country in attendance!!! Way to go Tom!!!
Last, but certainly not least, a huge thank you to all of you alums and friends who donated to the fund to add four new banners as well as record boards etc. to our practice facility!! We are proceeding with this project and should have it all completed by this summer! So please stop by and see how awesome it is going to look when it is all done. I am glad that we will be able to proudly display all of the accomplishments of all of the athletes who have been a part of this program. We would not be where we are today without all of the hard work and sweat from the alums along the way! Our end-of-year banquet is tomorrow, so we will be announcing our team awards and celebrating another great year! I hope you can join us!!
Go Blue!!
Bev
Wow! That is what I was thinking to myself after we finished the competition
Saturday night in Lincoln. I was really proud of the team and the way
that they competed. Starting on beam is not an easy rotation for anyone,
but we did it well. Carol McNamara was our lead off and she did a great
job! She got us started off on the right foot with a solid hit set. We
had not been sure if we were going to be able to use Becca or not, because
her back had been really hurting her the last two weeks! As usual though
when meet day came she was able to step in and really hit a solid routine.
The rest of the line up hit as well and we were
off to a good start!
We continued to hit one after the other on floor and then vault. When we got to bars, we knew the meet was in our grasp. All we needed to do was hit. Nellie started us off with a nice routine, but then an uncharacteristic fall from Katie had us in a situation where we had to hit the next four routines. They came through with flying colors! Lindsey nailed, then Jenny, then Lauren, and finally Elise!! It was a very exciting finish!! Katie was so happy afterwards that she gave all of her teammates a part of the flowers she won for vault. That is what team is all about! Picking it up when someone makes a mistake.
So here we are on our way once again to the NCAA National Championship.
We will train Tuesday - Friday this week and Monday of next before departing
on Tuesday afternoon for Auburn, AL. We are glad to be in the afternoon
session, because it will give us more
of a chance to rest if we qualify on to Super Six on Friday night. We
like our rotation and feel very good about our chances.
We have not seen LSU or Oklahoma this year, so it will be nice to see
some faces that are new to us. I have heard great things about LSU, and
we know that Utah will be strong as usual. Nebraska is a great team also,
and I expect them to be strong as well. Penn State has had a great year
and cannot be counted out by any means. They will be fired up to be there
and ready to prove that they have what it takes to move on. I am really
pleased to see the big ten getting stronger each year!
I know Anjel is great about giving you guys all kinds of details about
the other teams
etc. in our weekly newsletter, so I'll keep it short today. We are still
finalizing all of our
travel plans etc... so i'm off to check on how that is all coming. Keep
your fingers crossed for us and say a prayer or two over the next two
weeks. Stay tuned on line to watch the action starting April 21st at 1:00pm
central time. If you can't be there with us that is!
Go Blue!!!
Bev
The countdown is on for regionals! We will train this week M-T-W and leave on Thursday for Lincoln. Our preperation has been going well, I'd say. We have been practicing starting on beam, so I hope that will help us when we are in competiton. We are actually looking forward to this rotation so I think that will help us get a good start.
Our competition is as follows: Univ. of Nebraska, who as you know we
met in our first
meet of the season this year. They started a bit slow but when they got
going boy did they ever. They have been ranked in the top three a good
portion of the season until they slipped to 6th in the latest polls. I
know we will have to have a very good night in order to challenge them
for the title! Univ. of Arizona is currently ranked 18th and is another
strong team. We cannot expect to make mistakes and be able to advance
in front of them. We will need to hit our routines and not open the door
for them. The in-region teams are the Univ. of Missouri (ranked 19th),
Arizona State Univ. (ranked 29th), and the Univ. of Illinois (ranked 33rd).
We
saw the Univ. of Illinois at Big Tens, and they are a very respectable
team.
So this field will be strong and we will need to hit to advance! Univ.of
Nebraska always hosts a first class event, so we know it will be a good
meet and we will have a lot of fun. We will have an early morning on Sunday
coming home, as we will have to drive to Omaha for a flight at 8:15 am.
Whew, at least we will get home early afternoon to enjoy what
I hope will be a beautiful day in Ann Arbor! Stay tuned to this station
for a follow-up brief next week to let you know how it all turned out!
Go Blue!!!
Bev
Hello there Michigan fans! Sorry that I am a few days late in posting my briefing this week. We have been busy making arrangements for our team to travel to Nebraska for our regional championship. We are excited to be going to Nebraska! They are known for putting on a first class event, so I'm sure we will have a great experience there! Let me first go back a step and talk about Big Tens before I get to ahead of myself here.
Big Ten's...well we pulled it out! Whew it was a close one! My hat's
off to Penn State. They are a very good team this year. They looked good
when we saw them earlier in the year, but at Big Ten's they really put
it all together. They hit 24 routines, and we didn't. I was proud
of our team for hanging in there and fighting back after counting one
fall on beam. We started out very strong on vault and bars; we had some
spectacular preformances on these two events! We counted a fall on beam,
but I was still happy with the rest of the line up for staying composed
and hitting some really nice routines. Carol started us off with a clean
set, and Becca, well Becca has just been a rock!! She preforms best in
some of the toughest situations. Then Lindsey and Elise just fall in and
do their normal awesome routines like it is no big deal! We had a fall
on floor, but we didn't have to count it. Elise
was up last on floor and did a new last pass that she had only trained
the week before. We changed it because her double full had been weak,
and we needed something clean and consistent. She did it really well,
and that routine may very well have been the difference between winning
the title or coming in second, so a big thanks to Elise for going clean.
We were all very relieved that we came out on top once again. It was
awesome to have both the Freshman of the Year in Katie Lieberman and the
Co-Gymnast of the Year in Elise Ray! They are both so deserving of the
awards! We did pretty well with the individual event champions as well,
with Jenny and Katie tying for the vault title, Becca sharing the floor
title, and Elise winning the All-Around with Lindsey Bruck finishing second!!
So all in all, it was not the ideal meet but it turned out fine!
I'd like to send out my special thanks to all of you who made the trip to cheer us on! You guys made the difference and were awesome!!! It was so nice to come into the arena and hear our cheering section yelling to us and cheering us on.
Looking ahead, we took Monday off from practice and will train Tuesday-Friday
this week. We drew beam as our starting event at Regionals, so we will
be practicing that a lot this week and next. I think it will be very good
to start there and then keep the ball rolling
as we proceed to floor then vault and bars. We are a VERY good beam team,
we just need to get our confidence back and preform like we did all season
long. I will talk a bit more next week about some of the competition we
will face at Regionals. It will be a good field with a
lot of great gymnastics!
I have heard from some of you already who are trying to make the trip. We would love to have you!! Our fans made a huge difference for us at Big Ten's that is for sure!! We need you in Nebraska as well so check out your calendar and try to come!!!
Talk to you next week.
Bev
Many, many thanks go out to all of the people who made the trek to East Lansing to see us Friday night! Whether you came on the fan bus or on your own, we really appreciated having you there! To the GymFantry, you guys are AWESOME!! You all had Jenison Feildhouse rockin!
If you didn't make it, we had a good meet. We started out strong on bars, posting a 49.375 event total. All 6 plus the exhibition routine hit with good routines. We moved on to vault and performed much better than last week - a 49.25 event total. We had better landings on most vaults. Carol did a very nice vault in exhibition for a 9.775. Floor was also solid - a 49.325 event total. Six up and six hit. Katie Lieberman ended with a nice exhibition routine.
So at this point, we were 21 for 21 and looking for the strong finish. Well, there was good news and bad news. The bad news was that our first three routines had problems. However, the good news was that instead of packing it in, we were able to turn it around and finish with four awesome routines, including our exhibition routine by Carol, who went 9.85. So we finished strong and came away with a 196.5 team total, which improves our RQS by a little bit.
On Sunday afternoon, the team hosted our annual kids club clinic. The team had a blast working with about 30 young kids club members. A good time was had by all, and it was our team's chance to give something back to all of the kids who support us so faithfully during the season!
This week, we will get ready for the Big Ten Championships in Iowa.
We won't change much of what we do to get ready, but there is always a
different feel in the air this week. Excitement and anticipation for the
Championship! We will train Mon-Wed and leave Thursday for Iowa. There
will be a practice day on Friday and a banquet Friday night. Sat.
we begin competition at 6pm. We hope to put all four events together and
come away with another championship as well as a score to help our standing
in the rankings. I hope some of you came make the trip to Iowa. I hear
of vans being rented and people car pooling so if you have an interest
in going, give us a shout and we can try to put you in touch with someone
who has an open spot. We would love to have you there, cheering us on!!
Go Blue!
Bev
Well, we had an interesting weekend. I guess everyone needs a weekend in which not much goes right in order to appreciate all the other weekends when everything has gone so incredibly well.
I haven't talked in depth with the team, but my sense is that based on a combination of factors, we went into this meet focused on getting through it instead of going out to win it. Our week of training going into the meet was not stellar. We had several gymnasts who were sore and hurting from a variety of things. The hardest part of college gymnastics is not having opportunities to take breaks and rest aching body parts. We had several people who did not train much during the week in the hope that by Friday night, they would feel better.
We started off on bars and actually did pretty well. The judging for Michigan was pretty tight, but we had been used to that this season, so it was ok. After the first rotation, we were tied with Georgia. We went to vault and they went to bars. On vault, we looked good in the air but couldn't stick landings! We have been hot and cold with vault landings so far this year. Our scores reflected our landings, and Georgia took a small lead. It was at this point that we took a turn for the worse.
This is where as a coach I hoped that we would show our Michigan spirit and go out there and fight for every tenth! Instead, we seemed to get very tight. Our first routine up had a fall on the last pass, second routine had a fall on the first pass. After that, we seemed to loose all confidence. Landings were unsure and we lacked the performance quality we have just really begun to show. Beam was the same story. It is never easy to end on beam but we have done it so much this year and with a great deal of success up to this point. Two falls and a lot of nervous, unsure routines. This was by far our toughest meet of the season. We were all disappointed with our performance and I know this team will not give up! We will look at this meet as a learning experience. If we can regroup and come back out fighting then we will be better for having gone through it! Maybe it was a wake up call for us. We have a great deal of potential going into this post-season. I am confident that we will answer the call and make certain that if we find ourselves in a similar situation again that we will respond very differently next time!
As we look forward to Michigan State this weekend, we will need to take
training very seriously this week. This will be MSU's senior night and
their last home meet, so they will be up and ready for us. Our score will
be critical for the RQS and rankings going into the post-season, so we
will be fired up and ready for this one. I hope all of you will consider
making the short drive to East Lansing to cheer us on!! We have a bus
ready to take anyone who doesn't feel like driving, so I hope we will
have a great turnout!
GO BLUE!
Bev
Hello again to all of our Maize and Blue faithful fans! Please do not be discouraged by the drop in the national rankings. If you take a closer look, you will see that our total season average score ranks 2nd in the nation. There is only a 0.2 difference between 2nd and 7th place, so the teams are packed in pretty tight right now. We have a few good opportunities to regain some ground over the next few weeks since we are still counting a few low 196 scores. If we compete well and can muster some scores in the 197's, that will allow us to replace those low 196's and improve our RQS by a few tenths. So keep your fingers crossed as we head down south this weekend!
The team is really looking forward to this weekend. Competing at Georgia is always a lot of fun. They have great crowds, and it is always an exciting meet. Georgia had a slower start than normal this year, but they really seem to be turning it on at this point. I expect them to be ready for us that is for sure. We will have to really be on, but it should be a great meet!
Last Friday was such a special night! I was really pleased that we had
such a great night to honor all of our seniors. There were so many highlights!!
Lauren's vault started us off with such a bang! It was by far her career
best vault. She did a handspring front pike half
and nailed it cold! Way to go seniors!!! The vault squad continued to
pump out great vaults with stuck or close to stuck landings. Nellie performed
a new bar routine and a slightly new beam routine and nailed them both
for a 9.825. We were hitting handstands and swinging some of our best
bars so far this season. Kara Rosella competed for us in the beam line-up
and scored her personal best! Another excellent senior routine! Floor
was the best job as a team that we have done all season long! The tumbling
was sharp, and the performance quality was the best it has been all year.
When all was said and done, the seniors had a
great night and the team score of 197.80 was the highest score from any
team in the country. Although UCLA did come out on Sunday and score a
197.85, so now I guess it is the second best. No matter, I am so proud
of our team for their consistency and their continued improvement throughout
the season. I hope this snowball keeps rolling because I think we can
make a great run at the title this year!!! It should be an interesting
few
weeks ahead, so stay posted and keep us in your thoughts and prayers.
Go Blue!!
Bev