Gymnastics at regionals
Chris McCarty
Head Coach Jerry Reighard said one thing separates the teams that compete for a NCAA Championship from those who don’t.
“The deciding factor between who goes to nationals and who doesn’t will be intensity,” Reighard said. “It’s a fact that there will be 12 teams that go to nationals and the athletes on those teams will have mental superiority.”
The gymnastics team competes in the NCAA Regional in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Saturday.
To qualify for the National Championship, No. 25 CMU will have to place first or second in a field of six teams. No.5 Alabama leads the way after winning its fifth SEC Conference title. Others competing include No. 7 Oklahoma, No. 17 Auburn, No. 21 Kent State and No. 35 Michigan State. The top two teams will qualify for Nationals in Lincoln, Neb.
“It has been a tough two weeks and I think that the win at the MAC Championships took a lot out of us emotionally,” Reighard said. “That was a climax and we need to regain that emotion before the regional meet.”
Reighard said he likes the team’s draw, as it will sit out the first rotation, before opening the meet on the uneven parallel bars. Next will be the balance beam, before sitting out another rotation. The final two routines will be the floor exercise and the vault.
“We have to come out on the first event and really explode,” Reighard said. “If we have the type of bar performance that I know we’re capable of and really explode, then we will be lifted emotionally and we’ll be fine for the rest of the meet.”
Reighard said he is pleased with the opening event.
“We have a great competition order. Our first event on the uneven bars, we are starting on possibly our strongest event,” Reighard said. “Senior Katie Teft is No. 2 in the nation and No. 1 in our region. We need to come out big and I think we will. We end on vault and that will pretty much be all adrenaline.”
Going into the meet, CMU has something new.
“The recognition that Michele (Orloski) and Katie bring to our team is something we have never had before,” Reighard said. “Now we’re going to get notoriety because of them. Kara Reighard is the No. 4 all-arounder and we haven’t gone into a meet like that before.”
The Chippewas have been preparing for this meet through their non-conference schedule.
“One aspect that no one really asks about is the level of competition we compete against all year long,” Reighard said. “I think we had a pretty good non-conference schedule.”
One aspect that the gymnasts may not be accustomed to is the judging. Instead of two judges per event, there will be four. The highest and lowest scores are dropped, and the two remaining scores are averaged.
“The judging is going to be much stricter,” Reighard said. “No single judge will be responsible for 50 percent of a score, and I think that’s a plus in every coaches’ mind.”
Last season CMU placed fourth at Regionals in Baton Rouge, La.
“Last year we were in the mesmerized stage and we took ourselves out of the meet before it even started,” Reighard said. “This year we are not in the same thought pattern. When we watched the Big Twelve Championships we saw Oklahoma, and we are two even teams and domination is the key.”
Reighard said the team’s many seniors are the key to success.
“Our senior class has most definitely led us emotionally and physically at MAC’s,” Reighard said. “They wanted to win that title so bad that it rubbed off on everyone else, and they have to want it that bad again. They’re the key ingredient, and I said it at the beginning of the year; seniors win championships.”
