Fresh faces.
Fresh start.
This is the best way to describe the five freshmen on the Michigan women’s gymnastics team. After a frustrating finish last season, the sixth-ranked Wolverines look to plant their feet on top of the Big Ten and fight back into the Super Six of the NCAA National Championships.
“When we have been as successful as we have been, to have a year where we fall short of some of goals is disappointing to the girls,” Michigan coach Bev Plocki said. “They take that very seriously. Last year was last year. And this year is this year. That’s all we really care about right now.”
Even though the Wolverines nailed a first-place performance at the Northeast Regional earlier this year, they’ve had their struggles. A fourth-place finish at the Big Ten Championships marked the first time any team during Plocki’s tenure has failed to stand on the podium, snapping a streak of 15 consecutive top-three finishes.
New assistant coach Louis Robinson Jr. will help Michigan return to glory. Robinson replaces Joanne Bowers, who took the head coaching job at Washington University. Although Bowers will be missed, Robinson will bring his experience from Florida and Ohio State to make sure Michigan isn’t left empty-handed.
“It’s hard losing Joanne,” Plocki said. “Louis has brought a different bonus package: his technical mileage and his spotting ability. It will help us through the season. He’s also just a positive and motivating kind of a coach. He gets the athletes to want to work hard.”
Added senior co-captain Lindsay Bruck: “Louis is a great motivator and adds a lot to our team. He’s a great all-around coach and willing to take the extra effort.”
Bruck, along with junior co-captain Nellie Kippley, will lead the team through a difficult schedule, which includes meets against nine ranked teams, according to the preseason GymInfo 2007 Coaches Poll. The Wolverines will have to be near-perfect in away meets at No. 1 Utah and No. 2 Georgia.
Plocki said Michigan’s performance is only as good as the teams it faces. This year will be a true test: The team takes on more preseason ranked teams than it has in four years.
But the Wolverines are hungry to face the best.
“My whole team is probably in the best physical shape that they’ve been in as a whole for a number of years,” Plocki said.
Bruck pointed out that like any other sport, Michigan needs to avoid injuries to succeed. Unfortunately for the Wolverines, senior Carol McNamara is still recovering from a fracture of her fourth metatarsal foot bone. Plocki said the injury is more significant than it would be to a football or basketball player because a gymnast’s foot isn’t padded with a shoe.
And just a week ago, sophomore Tatjana Thuener-Rego suffered an ankle sprain. McNamara and Thuener-Rego missed this weekend’s intrasquad meet, but look to get back in action as the season begins.
Last weekend’s Maize and Blue Intrasquad meet at Crisler Arena was the first action the freshmen saw as Wolverines. Despite an all-around victory by Blue’s Bruck, the Maize overcame the deficit in the final rotation to take the win, 115.725-115.125. Freshman Sarah Curtis of the Maize finished third in the all-around, but performances by Kippley and freshman Jordan Sexton put the Maize on top. With a strong start on Friday, the freshmen have started the tall task of replacing seniors, like three-time NCAA All-American Lauren Mirkovich and 10-time All-American Jenny Deiley.
But Plocki believes they won’t have trouble filling the gap.
“I don’t think we’re going to have difficulties,” Plocki said. “We really out-gained what we lost. Yes, you’re replacing experienced seniors for freshmen, so that’s a roll of a dice there. But as we go through this year, we potentially won’t have lost much from a performance standpoint.”
There may be new faces in the crowd, but the mentality still remains the same.
“Our goals are pretty much the same,” Plocki said. “We want to win the Big Ten and qualify for Regionals. But our ultimate goal is to win a national championship.”