Gymnasts with quick turnaround before next meet
The gymnastics team will have to cram a week's worth of training and rest before their Thursday night quad meet with only three days of practice until its next meet.
The Chippewas (11-1, 4-0 Mid-American Conference) will compete at 7 p.m. Thursday at McGuirk arena against Alaska-Anchorage (1-8), Eastern Michigan (3-5) and Southeast Missouri State (3-5).
CMU comes into the meet with prior wins against EMU and Alaska-Anchorage earlier in the season. That fact alone may help to quell some of the concerns that may arise from a short week of training. But redshirt freshman Megan McWhorter said that the team should not have any problems overcoming less time in the gym.
“We’ll be fine with regular practice,” McWhorter said. “We just have to have confidence in what we (as a team) can do.”
The team will look again to McWhorter, who won the vault event last weekend with a 9.800 and posted a 9.875 the weekend before. McWhorter said that the reason she has been so successful is because nearly all of her time in the gym is spent perfecting her vault routine.
“It's just a lot of numbers," she said. "Some girls are just really good naturally, but I have to do a lot of numbers and do the skill repeatedly to get the feeling."
CMU head coach Jerry Reighard said the short week is something that is rather uncommon in gymnastics. However, his team's ability to re-focus this week comes down to its dedication.
“It’s a testament to our athletes to have the will power to be focused against every opponent,” Reighard said.
That focus has been proven in nearly all events, as CMU leads the MAC in the team all-around score (195.750) and on the balance beam, with a high of 48.9. Nationally, the Chippewas rank 15th on the beam with a per-meet average of 48.536, with the season-high 48.900 coming against Northern Illinois on Jan. 30.
Individually, junior Kristin Teubner leads the league in both the floor exercise (9.925) and the vault (9.925). Teubner’s high score in the all-around (39.250) is good enough for second in the league.
Reighard said that the team's ability to maintain high averages in all events comes down to each gymnast improving upon each other's routine.
“Every single meet we’re there and our team knows that they can count on each other,” Reighard said. “We’re able to have someone come up right behind them and cover they’re back and allow us to still score well.”
This meet may also mark the 400th career victory for Reighard, who currently sits at 397.
