The Michigan men’s gymnastics team faced one of the world’s finest teams on Friday, as the French National Team defeated the Wolverines 220.725 to 216.8.
The exhibition match with France gave Michigan an opportunity to compete against the best before it faces America’s collegiate elite in the upcoming Big Ten and NCAA championships.
The Wolverines have been on an upswing lately, but nerves played a factor early.
“I was disappointed with our floor exercise and (pommel) horse, which were our first two events,” Michigan coach Kurt Golder said. “We had too much adrenaline early in this match.”
That shouldn’t take away from Michigan’s best score of the year, which was just 0.05 away from breaking the school record.
The Wolverines were able to shake off a slower start and played even with France for the last four events. They also beat France by nearly two points in the still rings after they were outscored by over three points in pommel horse.
“France is the strongest pommel horse team in the world,” Golder said. “We were able to blow them away in the next event, still rings.”
In the still rings, Michigan’s Conan Parzuchowski was first with a 9.475 and Justin Toman was second with a 9.3, as Michigan held four of the top five scores in the event. Kris Zimmerman scored a 9.575 on the high bar but placed third, while Brad Kenna won the floor exercise with a 9.2.
Michigan competed with its strongest lineup of the year by allowing its best players to participate in more events. Key performers Kenna and Daniel Diaz-Luongo were able to compete in four or more events. This has been the plan that Golder has preached all year: Let the best gymnasts take it easy early, especially those with injuries, then try for their best performances in the end.
“Everyone’s feeling optimistic and confident (at this point),” Golder said. “I feel very good and optimistic with how things are going. We need to hit the peak in our performance at this time. We didn’t know if it would happen, but it did.”
Michigan is going to prepare this week for the Big Ten Championships, which are next weekend in Minneapolis. The meet will include the six teams from the Big Ten that are ranked in the top 10 nationally. After that, they will travel to Norman, Okla. for the NCAA Championships.