Bowling Green State University Athletics
Coach Kerrie's Post-Meet Blog
January 21, 2008 | Gymnastics
Jan. 21, 2008
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
BGSU vs. EMU: Coach's Notes
Wow! What a win over Eastern Michigan this weekend. EMU came in picked to win the MAC this year so we knew this was an important start in MAC competition. Shannon and I really worked with our athletes throughout last week on mental focus. Much of our mistakes in our first competition came down to rushing the skills and not staying in the moment. From the minute the team walked in the gym on Saturday night, I knew things would be different. They had such confidence and such team spirit. The warm up was successful and they were ready to compete.
Vault was again a great start for us. Jacque Bernhardt and Breanne Guy lead us with beautiful yurchenko layout half and a yurchenko full respectively. Ashlee deLeeuw found the floor this weekend after missing in our first meet so that was a big help! Unfortunately, Meg Satterlee missed her yurchenko full so we'll be looking to add that to our vault score next meet. What an exciting start!
We had a couple of misses on bars in our first meet so we were looking to build from there this time. While we had some minor mistakes, everyone made their routines!!! Michelle Luchini was our high scorer, despite having a fever and a head cold. I was so proud of her for stepping up for her team. Breanne Guy really improved as well. She missed her full twisting double back last week but this week she finished with a great landing.
Beam was a huge disappointment in our first competition. We trained so hard this week and made some adjustment to our line up. I chose Katie Follett to start us off because she has great experience competing collegiate balance beam and she is such a rock on this event. She stepped up and got the job done! Abby Ashley had tremendous struggles at our first meet so we really worked on the mental game plan for this meet. She nailed her set and Morgan Balzer did the same. Breanne Guy also stuck her handspring-handspring-layout step out to complete the hits for our line-up. Meg Satterlee and Jholeen Ponce missed their series but came back both completing their side somis on beam. It looks like we will only continue to get stronger on beam.
So, we knew we were leading going into floor. The energy from the team and the crowd was incredible. Abby Ashley went first and hit her routine. I was so proud of her comeback this weekend. What a fighter!!! Both Morgan Balzer and Breanne Guy were about to finish great all-around meets. Morgan rolled her ankle taking off for a tumbling pass but, fortunately, she was able to finish her routine. She'll be looking to improve next weekend on her floor score. Bre nailed her double pike and double tuck but rushed her last pass and sat down her whip half-front full combination. Knowing Bre, she won't let that happen again. Jacque Bernhardt joined the floor line up this week and pulled out her last pass with a few extra steps. Queenie Gamble impressed everyone with her high-flying tumbling. Meg Satterlee was our high scorer on floor. She is so clean and her smile wins the crowd.
The meet concluded and I knew that EMU had hit beam. It was nerve-racking but we did get the win and we scored a 191.95, so close to our goal of 192.00 for this week. It was great to be able to achieve that score knowing that we have so many things to work on and so many routines that we can hit in future meets. What a confidence booster for the team. They were so excited!!! I have to thank our fans again for packing the house and being so supportive. The place just went wild when they announced our win! I have to thank my new assistant coach Shannon Welker for wanting to make this program a success just as much as I do and getting our vault and bars together. As our biggest competition in any meet is really ourselves, just as it is for any team and any individual in a sport like gymnastics, we will look to increase the number of hit routines, stick more dismounts and continue to improve on all the little details. All I can say is, Watch out- Here comes the Falcons!!!
