Gymnastics team travels to Bowling Green for MAC opener
Gymnastics head coach Jerry Reighard isn't looking forward to the four hour bus ride awaiting his team Saturday.
The Central Michigan gymnastics team will travel to Bowling Green to compete in its first Mid-American Conference meet at 6 p.m.
“In our sport, away means we get on the bus early Saturday morning," Reighard said. "We travel, we eat on the road, more importantly we get off the bus and we compete."
Sitting on the bus is more detrimental to gymnasts than in most other sports.
“That’s a big hindrance,” Reighard said. “It’s difficult after sitting three or four hours on a bus when your sports requires flexibility, to walk off, and get limber, and get ready to compete mentally. It’s not a good situation.”
Freshmen Jamilah Ali and sophomore Megan Harrington will lead Bowling Green. They finished second and third in all-around scores at the Kentucky Classic last week.
CMU will count on its own duo of senior Kristin Teubner and sophomore Brittany Petzold. Since Bowling Green has moved into Anderson Arena the Falcons are 3-0 in home openers.
“We need Teubner and Petzold, to step up their competition this weekend," Reighard said. "If they do that, and I know they will, it’s going to be a separating factor between Bowling Green and us.”
Petzold is coming off winning the MAC Gymnast of the Week award. She was just off her career-high on the uneven bars, and had the best all-around score in the MAC last week.
“That is a really prestigious award, that all of our athletes are vying for each week,” Reighard said. “We hold that out in front of them because we want that to be the carrot. It’s a big deal, it carries with each person throughout the season.”
This week the team has been practicing in specific areas as a part of the game plan, Reighard said.
“We are really emphasizing leaps and jumps for this meet," he said. "We had a lot of easily fixed deductions in the first meet. We need to be a half of a tenth better per routine. That will be a big deciding factor"
