The Chippewas (5-0, 2-0 in the Mid-American Conference) will face Eastern Michigan (0-1, 0-1), and Texas Women’s University at 7 p.m. Friday in Ypsilanti.

Texas Women’s University (3-1) will follow CMU back to Mount Pleasant for another meet at 1 p.m. Sunday in McGuirk Arena.

Friday’s meet against Eastern Michigan should give CMU its biggest challenge of the weekend, and more important because it is an in-conference match.

“The Friday night meet will be the important meet. It’s the MAC meet counter for us,” head coach Jerry Reighard said. “To continue to control our own destiny we need to have a MAC win against Eastern.”

While CMU has a road meet, it’s a luxury that the team only has about a two-hour ride. Reighard doesn’t believe that fatigue will be a factor because the Chippewas will still be sticking to their basic routine over the weekend.

“If we were on the road I think that would be a bigger factor,” Reighard said. “We’ll be back home Friday night, and then we’ll have our team meal on Saturday night. We’ll be ready to go on Sunday.”

CMU is coming off a win despite what Reighard said was a disappointing performance against Ball State.

The high standards Reighard has for the team remains a focus for the weekend. The team totaled a score of 193.350 against Ball State. That is three points less that Reighard’s goal of 196.

He said he is trying to get him team to think differently going into this weekend.

“They need to come outside of their own little bubble. We kind of locked ourselves into a situation, we’ve conditioned ourselves to do what we want,” Reighard said. “My statement to them is if you think like you’ve always thought, then your going to do like you’ve always done. We have to think totally different.”

Against Ball State all three all-arounders, Kristin Teubner, Brittany Petzold, and Rebecca Druien, scored below 39 points.

“I think our whole situation that we put ourselves into is we’ve settled on this plateau on the mountain,” Reighard said. “Right now we don’t think we can climb to the next plateau.”

In order to change the mindset of the team, Reighard is willing to take some chances.

“The danger in gymnastics is that when you do something different it could have a little bit of ramifications. That’s when you make mistakes that cost you more,” Reighard said. “I’m willing to take that chance because the team has to climb off that plateau and reach the next level, that’s the plan this weekend.”

CMU gymnastics team will look to make it 23-straight Mid-American Conference wins against Ball State Saturday at 1 p.m. in McGuirk Arena. (Paige Calamari/Staff Photographer)

The Central Michigan gymnastics team looks to continue the streak of domination over Mid-American Conference teams at 1 p.m. Saturday at McGuirk Arena against Ball State.

With 23-straight MAC wins, head coach Jerry Reighard and his team are looking to continue the streak.

“We are here to do just that, we want to control the conference as our number-one goal,” Reighard said.

Senior Kristin Teubner and sophomore Brittany Petzold will need to perform well to keep the streak alive.

They both contributed early this season with Teubner scoring a 9.825 on the floor against Bowling Green, while Petzold scored a 9.8 on the bars.

“There is a great deal of pressure on them, they are almost our sole returners,” Reighard said. “They will feel the weight of the team, especially this weekend.”

Reighard has the team working on becoming a balanced team, something he is always striving for his teams.

“It’s still very early in the season but, we’ve been good on bars. I’ve been very pleased with our performance on the balance beam,” he said. “Just like in other sports, the team has to be complete in all phases. A football team can’t just be a third quarter team and win.

“We just can’t be a one-event team. Being good on one event won’t carry a team to victory.”

Kylie Fagan won MAC specialist of the week after posting a 9.7 on the bars and 9.75 on the balance beam.

CMU will be competing against tMAC gymnast of the week, Ball State senior Kayla Kmiecik.

Kmiecik posted a career high 9.8 on the floor, and 9.625’s on the bars and balance beam in the Cardinals first victory of the season over Illinois State.

Reighard would like to see one of his all-around members get a 39 overall score. It hasn’t happened yet this season, but it’s something that Reighard wants his team to focus on at this meet.

“I’d like one of our athletes to hit 39 as a totaled score for their events,” Reighard said. “I think Teubner, Petzold and Druien all have the ability to hit 39. That’s something that has to happen at this meet, one or even all of them hit 39.”

Junior all-arounder Samantha Piotrowski center, reacted as she screamed joyously with teammates after she saw the overall score, putting CMU in the lead after the first event of four at the gymnastics meet Sunday at McGuirk Arena. CMU took first place in a meet of four teams, including Wisconsin- La Crosse, Wisconsin Eau Claire and Centenary. (Jake May/Staff Photographer)

Senior Samantha Piotrowski lay on the mat in disbelief after landing awkwardly on her arm during a practice series of flips.

“When I heard the pop, I felt uncertainty,” Piotrowski said.

She instantly erupted in tears, and soon the rest of her team surrounded her sobbing. Piotrowski ruptured her ulnar collateral ligament, and just like that the Central Michigan gymnastics’ senior captain’s career was over.

“It was life changing when I found out it was career ending,” Piotrowski said. “After doing gymnastics for 18 years — it was devastating.”

All her teammates could do was wipe away their tears, circle up and pray as she left practice.

But Piotrowski is not feeling bad for herself and leaving the program and moving on with her life.

She’s doing the one thing an injured captain can do: Be another coach and a leader.

“Well I definitely think that as a senior, that the experience that I have, even the juniors and sophomores lack,” Piotrowski said. “As a senior I think it’s my job to lead by example.”

The ulnar collateral ligament injury in her elbow happened Dec. 30, nine days before gymnastics’ first meet. She still went to that first meet, but as an inspirational leader instead of a performer.

The Naperville, Ill., native will continue to lead the team as captain even without competing. One of her goals as leader will be keeping the team calm in pressure-filled atmospheres.

“Especially when there is a competition setting where there is pressure,” Piotrowski said. ”Keeping your head on straight, keep poised and do things that you practice in the gym everyday.”

Head coach Jerry Reighard expects Piotrowski to lead, too.

“Her role obviously has changed, but she is still the captain of the team,” Reighard said.  “The underclassmen have looked to her over the last three months, and that’s not going to change. They still need to depend on her to be there to inspire them, and that’s a role that she will make.”

She plans to be another coach for the team.

“I’m one more eye in the gym, where now I don’t have to focus on myself. I can put all my energy toward them,” Piotrowski said. “I can lead by motivating them and speaking to them. My part on the team isn’t gone, it’s just very different.”

It is easy to learn from someone that has had so much success.

Piotrowski has been on back-to-back Mid-American Conference champion teams, and led them on bars.

Looking back, her favorite memory is when CMU hosted the MAC championships last year.

“Last year we hosted MAC championships and it was honestly the best energy and home crowd,” Piotrowski said. “And we absolutely blew the competition out of the water, the next team was almost a whole point behind us.”

She said it was a great send-off for the seniors.

“To do that in front of your home crowd, it was a great feeling. For our seniors, as their final send-off. It was the best feeling, it was really fun,” Piotrowski said.

Piotrowski certainly won’t let her injury stop her from achieving the next goals she has in life.

“Well, I’d like to work in some sort of broadcasting area, focusing on sports. I’d like to work with College Gameday, be the Erin Andrews (ESPN sideline reporter) type deal,” Piotrowski said. “But first I’m going to try and be a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader.”

The victory marks the 23^rd consecutive victory for CMU (4-0, 1-0) over Mid-American Conference opponents.

Freshman all-around Brittany Petzold earned her second-straight first-place finish Saturday against Bowling Green. (Paige Calamari/Staff Photographer)

Head coach Jerry Reighard predicted that senior Kristin Teubner, and sophomore Brittany Petzold would step up and lead the team against Bowling Green. His prediction was spot on.

Both scored of over 9.7 on an event. Teubner scored a 9.825 on the floor, while Petzold scored a 9.8 on the bars. Both finished with identical 38.200 all-around scores. The first-place finish for Petzold was her second straight.

Freshmen Rebecca Druien scored a 9.775 on the balance beam, a season high. The youth movement included sophomore Meaghan McWhorter, who posted a 9.75 on the floor and a 9.8 on the vault.

Bowling Green was led by Megan Harrington, who compiled an all-around score of 37.925. In Danielle Wishart only event for BGSU, she scored a 9.85 on the vault.

Central Michigan held a decisive advantage on the balance beam, and bars, outscoring the Falcons by a one point in each category.

The Chippewas will try and continue their streak of domination over MAC opponents when CMU hosts Ball State on Jan. 21^st.

So Kristin’s mother Connie Tuebner decided it would be after to put her daughter into a gymnastics program.

“My mom thought that it wasn’t very safe, so she stuck me in a program at the local Y,” Teubner said.

Now a senior at Central Michigan, Teubner hasn’t stopped doing flips.

Last year she was the Mid-American Conference co-gymnast of the year, following a season she was named to the MAC all-academic team. Teubner was also the MAC’s top performer on the vault and floor.

Becoming a leader

Since her freshman year, when she won the MAC Freshman of the Year award, Teubner has been producing for the CMU gymnastics team. But now during her last year on the squad she faces a different challenge.

“I’m one of the captains, so I’m going to have more of a vocal role this year,” Teubner said. “In the past I’ve been a leader by example, so I’m pretty excited about that.”

Head coach Jerry Reighard expects Teubner to lead.

“She is captain of the team this year, she’s very inspirational to the entire team,” Reighard said.

But Teubner still expects greatness from herself.

“I’ll be more vocal in the gym, and be a leader that way. But also in the gym being an all-arounder, and current MAC champion,” she said. “I try to step up my game by showing everyone how to do it right the first time and how it should be done.”

Fellow senior captain Samantha Piotrowski has been with Kristin from the beginning.

“Kristin is one of the most valuable girls we have on the team, she is one of the most outstanding all-arounders on the team,” Piotrowski said. “You can’t replace Kristin’s gymnastics, it’s a statement to how hard she has worked since coming here, because she wasn’t as phenomenal as she is now.”

After racking up awards her first three years, Teubner has pushed her goals higher.

“I just try and focus on making myself better each day, and focusing on my goals like going to Nationals this year, and I’d like to repeat as MAC champion. So if I take care of those goals, other things will take care of themselves,” Teubner said.

Teubner has been a key member on back-to-back MAC championship teams. But not winning it her freshmen year is what has Teubner motivated.

“It feels awesome to win a MAC championship, but my freshmen year we missed out on being champions,” she said. “It was heart breaking so it’s great that we’ve done it the past two years, to get a third would be amazing.”

The health-fitness major with a 3.7 GPA has caught the public’s eye with her academics.

Recently Teubner received the Dick-Enberg Scholar Athlete of the Year award. The award recognizes a junior athlete that excels in both academics and athletics.

“It’s a great honor, there are so many awesome athletes here at Central that do well in academics as well as on the field and the fact that they thought I was the top person for this year is a really great feeling,” she said.

Teubner said she wants to go out on top as a senior.

“My goal for this year is to be MAC senior of the year, repeat as MAC champion and compete at nationals,” she said.

“Recruiting was almost non-existent when I came here.” Reighard said. “I remember distinctively when I came in the very first year I was recruiting an athlete from Florida, and I told the athletic director I wanted to fly an athlete in from Florida, and she just looked at me with bug eyes like, ‘we don’t do that.’”

Things have changed an awful lot since the second longest tenured CMU coach came to Mount Pleasant in 1984.

“Now I’m flying all over, and kids are flying in-and-out on their own,” Reighard said. “They like this university and they like this program.”

Obviously Reighard has been able to bring in some talent. He’s won 12 Mid-American Conference titles and eight MAC Coach of the Year awards.

CMU freshmen Taylor Noonan, Kylie Fagan, and Halle Moraw already have seen his impact.

“Coach Reighard has helped me a lot, he has helped me improve on everything, and helped me believe in myself,” Fagan said.

Reighard shows a lot of patience with his very talented freshmen.

“He is really good about working with you, he doesn’t get on you and he doesn’t leave you alone, he works with you and he is patient,” Noonan said. “It’s helpful knowing that he always has your back.”

He doesn’t like taking the credit for his athletes’ success though.

“I think it’s very humbling, it’s certainly very gratifying,” he said. “I always know that it’s not really me winning the award, but the athletes winning a conference championship.”

CMU is near and dear to Reighard’s heart. He’s come full circle from being a gymnast at CMU, coaching here and even coaching a daughter for the Chippewas.

“I’m obviously very bias, but I think the thing that sticks out in my mind is when my daughter who was on the team scored her first 10.” he said. “I can vividly see that in my mind, and I can feel the emotions. Not only the pride I had as a coach but as a father as well.”

Her name was Kara Reighard and she represented the maroon and gold from 2002-05. She was three time All-MAC and MAC freshman of the year in 2002. She still holds the CMU record for best all-around score with a 39.625 during the 2003 MAC Championships.

Besides recruiting, a lot else has changed since Reighard took over as Chippewas head coach.

“I think it’s almost a new sport, a different sport then it was 20 years ago.” Reighard said. “The equipment has changed, the requirements of what we have to do have changed, and more importantly the talent level has changed tremendously.”

As well as talent growth, better recruiting helps bring in the best talent. Something that’s important to Reighard.

“The skills that we were doing on floor twenty-five years ago, we’re now doing on the balance beam,” he said. “It’s just exploded, making it very difficult for the athletes to get a good score.”

One thing that hasn’t changed is the feeling of winning a MAC title.

“MAC titles never get old, they never get old,” the 12-time MAC champion said. “It’s a challenge from the very first day of August when our athletes get here and it culminates on that Saturday that we compete for the conference championship.”

He went on to say that the feeling doesn’t last longer than 30 days because it is on to the next season. But when you lose it lasts the whole year.

Although Reighard has been at CMU 28 years and accomplished so much, he’s not content. He wants more.

“I would really love to take a CMU team to the national championships,” he said. “It’s one of the things that we have worked very hard for and came very close. The top 12 teams in the nation go and we have finished 13^th before.

“In fact we actually finished tied for 12^th place and lost the tiebreaker, so it was almost like a flip of the coin. That’s one of the things, one of the aspirations I still have.”

In gymnastics, youth rules since athletes put such a strain on joints it ends up taking a toll.

Collegiate teams all across the country are heavily filled with freshman talent. Central Michigan does too, with eight of its 15 gymnasts being freshmen.

“I’m really excited about this freshman class,” said head coach Jerry Reighard. “There is a lot of talent, it’s a different concept.”

The coaching staff, along with the upcoming medical program, helped freshman Taylor Noonan decide to come to CMU.

“The gymnastics obviously drew me in, but I’m also really into the medical field, and I knew they were building a medical facility here, so that drew me in too,” Noonan said. “Coach Reighard’s way of coaching and the fact that he wants his gymnasts to get better before they leave here really left an impression on me.”

Freshman all-arounder Halle Moraw’s decision was more about the program and its standards.

“They have a really good gymnastics program, and they like to keep learning new skills, which set them apart from a lot of other colleges,” Moraw said.

Others like the close-knit feel the team has.

“I liked the coaches, and I liked the gymnasts. They were more like a family and seemed to bond together,” freshman Kylie Fagan said.

Reighard working with them to get the freshman jitters out.

Noonan, Fagan and Moraw will all be contributing to the team this year, they even have a few goals in mind.

“My personal goal is to be a MAC champion on bars and help my team out as much as I can,” Fagan said.

Noonan’s goal is “to compete every meet on beams and hopefully contribute on bars and floor.”

For Reighard the challenge is preparing his freshmen to compete in unfriendly atmospheres.

“That’s our challenge. The skill level is there, it’s just can they perform in an uncomfortable meet atmosphere,” Reighard said.

Sophomore setter Kelly Maxwell celebrates with teammates after winning 3-2 over NIU at the MAC Championships Nov. 20 in Geneva, Ohio. (Adam Niemi/Staff Photographer)

Central Michigan athletics claimed three Mid-American Conference titles this past season, and a regular season MAC-West crown in baseball.

Wrestling, volleyball and gymnastic also won MAC championships.

For wrestling it was the squad’s 10th straight conference title.

“For us to win the championship we needed every single point of every single match …,” said head coach Tom Borrelli. “It was a total team victory.”

Later that same month CMU gymnastics won its second consecutive MAC title in McGuirk Arena on March 20.

Posting a season-high 195.600, the Chippewas made their mark on this season’s MAC tournament title. It was their 12th conference title, and claimed individual winners in the balance beam, floor exercise, uneven bars and the all-around categories.

Volleyball won the program’s first ever MAC championship on Nov. 20.

“This is ours, it is what the team kept saying going into every timeout and every break,” said eight-year head coach Erik Olson. “This win puts CMU on the volleyball map with our first championship in history.”

The Chippewas had to beat No. 16 Northern Illinois in the MAC Championship game. It took a fifth and deciding set, but CMU upset the top-seeded Huskies.

“Our whole team was on fire tonight,” Kelly Maxwell said. “We always talk about how we have to put everything together and this was the time to do it and we did.”

The baseball team couldn’t take the MAC tournament title, but during the regular season they won their division. Much of that was thanks to pitcher Jake Sabol, who was since drafted by the Detroit Tigers.

In the MAC-West clinching game Sabol threw a complete game only allowing two runs in a 5-2 victory for CMU.

“For it to come to down to the final game of the season and for him to be the guy and go out there and throw like that, it makes you feel so good for him and all the time and effort he put in to get to this level,” head coach Steve Jaksa said. “It’s a great accomplishment for him.”

In his 20th season as head coach, Tom Borrelli led the Central Michigan wrestling team to its tenth consecutive Mid-American Conference Championship, winning CM Life’s Coach of the Year award.

Coming into the season, wrestling fans were skeptical of the six first-time starters and minimal senior leadership. Borrelli worked with the young group, making adjustments to the lineup throughout the season to work around injuries, eventually sending four wrestlers to the NCAA Tournament.

The team finished with an 8-8 record, including 4-1 in conference play, winning five of the final six dual-meets. Six of the team’s eight losses were against top 20 teams, including a 10-24 loss to No. 1 Cornell to open the dual-meet season.

Borrelli added three athletes to his list of All-American wrestlers this season – Scotti Sentes, Ben Bennett and Jarod Trice – increasing his total to 35 since taking over in 1991.

- Justin Hicks

Honorable Mention: gymnastics coach Jerry Reighard

In 26 years as the head of the CMU gymnastics program, Jerry Reighard has transformed a MAC program, into a regional and national contender.

Reighard his milestone 400th career victory in 2011. He led a squad that won its second consecutive MAC Championship. With a total of 11 MAC titles, Reighard sits in second place in MAC titles within the University. Reighard also ranks No. 1 in the MAC conference in terms of wins, with 184.

Under Reighard the squad has reached seven Regional Championships, and posted winning seasons in 14 out of the last 15. With 58 individual champions, 20 first-team Academic All-MAC picks, three NCAA Regional champions, and six NCAA championships qualifiers. Reighard has also coached six MAC Senior Gymnasts of the Year, three MAC Gymnasts of the Year and six conference freshmen of the Year.

Academics have also flourished under Reighard’s term as his teams have been ranked in the top 20 in the nation for team grade point average seven times. The Chippewas were ranked sixth in 1997, seventh in 1998 and sixth in 1999.

- Nick Conklin

Homorable Mention: women’s basketball coach Sue Guevara

Central Michigan women’s basketball coach Sue Guevara found ways to win basketball games. Her second half adjustments were crucial in improving a team that she guided to eight more wins in 2010-2011, than last season.

Her run-and-gun offense caused multiple problems for defenses in route to the nation’s third-best scoring offense. After allowing 92 points to Buffalo on Jan. 26, she got her team to buy into a more defensive approach — a defense that ranked near the bottom in the nation.

CMU finished the season with a 7-2 record, after the Buffalo collapse. Guevara got CMU to the MAC Tournament and won its first round game against Buffalo.

The Chippewas were one of two teams to defeat the Toledo during the season. The Rockets eventually won the Women’s National Invitational Tournament.

- John Manzo

All-around gymnast Andrea de la Garza made her impact on the squad quickly upon arriving on campus. She won the all-around competition in the Mid-American Conference championships (39.125), de la Garza, would be CMU’s top scorer in 21 events throughout the year. Her efforts would win her both the Mid-American Conference Freshman of the Year and first-team All-MAC award.

The senior would follow suit in 2009, where she recorded a 9.8 or higher seven times and a 9.7 or higher 25 times on the year. During 2010 de la Garza saw a return to the first team All-MAC group after she tied for first in the floor exercise (9.850) at the MAC championships.

Finishing again on the podium in her final season, de la Garza posted two second-place finishes (beam and bars) in the MAC championships — winning both the second team All-MAC award and the MAC Gymnast of the Week award in 2011.

Honorable Mention: Kristin Teubner

Junior Kristin Teubner was an equal contributor with de la Garza on the team.

Beginning her career in 2009, she won the MAC Freshman of the Year award after she won the MAC title in the floor exercise (9.850). In 2010 Teubner competed in every meet and she scored a 9.800 or higher 20 times.

Teubner was awarded the MAC Specialist of the Week award as well as the Academic All-MAC team after finishing the year with 3.7 GPA.

Honor Mention: Brittney Petzold

Winning freshman of the year seems to be a stepping stone for future success with the CMU gymnastics team.

Petzold posted a 9.850 to win the bars in the MAC Championship. Also finishing No. 3 in the all-around category with a season high 39.250. Petzold would go on to score a 9.7 or higher 39 times over the year.