8 - The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday - Monday, April 10, 1995
Wymer ends
By Michael Joshua
Daily Sports Writer
Saturday, Michigan saw the last home performance of
one of the greatest gymnasts in school and NCAA history.
Senior All-American and co-captain Beth Wymer competed
for the last time in Ann Arbor.
"I am going to be sad to leave this university and no longer
be a gymnast," Wymer said. "It's been my entire life for over
18 years. It's kind of tough, it's like I am going through a mid-
life crisis. Now what do I do?"
However, before Wymer has time to contemplate her life
after gymnastics, one more meet remains where she will be
able to showcase her talents - the NCAA Championships.
Wymer is the two-time defending national champion on
the uneven bars, as well as a six-time All-American. Her
other achievements include being a participant in the 1993
World University Games and being named the Big Ten
Gymnast of the Year in 1992 and 1994.
She either holds, or is tied for, the top score in all events
in Michigan history, having received a perfect score on the
bars, vault and the floor. At the Regional meet Saturday, she
topped her own school-record in the balance beam with a
score of 9.95.
However, the Regional meet was not one of her better
meets. She had some difficulty on the bars and stepped out of
bounds on the floorexercise, while attaining scores of 9.8 and
9.65. On the balance beam, Wymer shared the title with
Alabama's Stephanie Woods and finished second overall in
the all-around competition.
home career
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Most people would have been ecstatic with this overall
performance. Yet one must take into account Beth Wymer's
standards.
"For me, personally, I didn't do as well as I could have,"
Wymer said. "I had a rough day but that happens. Hopefully,
when Nationals come around and it's the final determining
meet, this was just the qualifier, hopefully I will be on and I
am ready to be on.
"In two weeks, we're going to have everything cleaned
up and we're going to be ripping and raring to go for the
Nationals."
Despite all her individual accomplishments, Wymer al-
ways stresses the importance of being on a team and the
achievements of the Wolverines as a whole. She seems to shy
away from questions which focus only on her own success.
"It takes a team to win a championship," she said.
"Beth always tries to do whatever she can to help the
team," coach Bev Plocki said.
The NCAAs will be the last chance for gymnastic spec-
tators to see the power and grace of Elizabeth Wymer. The
only other place that Wymer could perform again would be
the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. However, at this moment, that
is not very likely.
"I don't know if I have had enough gymnastics, but my
body has," the 22 year-old Wymer said. "I'll definitely be sad
to leave. It's been the best time of my entire life by far, and?
I'll probably never have experiences like this ever again."
"I'm definitely going to find something that I have to
perfect and become aperfectionist at."
tR
MARK FRIEDMAN/Daily
The Michigan women's gymnastics team finished second in Saturday's NCAA Central Regional. Alabama was the
only team with a better score. The Crimson Tide have now won the regional in 10 of the last 11 years.
hi
dw I
AN AN AN AN AN AN
GYMNASTICS NOTEBOOK'
Marshall joins elite group
By Michael Joshua
Daily Sports Writer
Therehave been only three athletes
in Michigan history to have recorded a
perfect score in their careers.
All three arepartofthisyear'ssquad.
They include senior Beth Wymer,
who has received a10 on the bars, vault
and the floor exercise, junior Wendy
Marshall (vault) and freshman
Heather Kabnick (vault).
Marshall won the vault title for the
second straight year with aperfect score.
She shared this year's title with Ala-
bamajunior Kim Kelly and Louisiana
StatejuniorJennifer Wood.
Wymer barely missed getting a 10
on the balance beam Saturday, receiv-
ing a career best 9.95.
UNSTOPPABLE: The Alabama
women's gymnastics team continued
its domination of the NCAA Central
Regional, capturing it for the eighth
consecutive time this weekend atCrisler
Arena. In fact, Alabama has won the
regional 10 of the past eleven years.
The Crimson Tide finished second to
Louisiana State in 1986.
TOP PERFORMERS: Michigan placed
four in the top six of the all-around
competition. Co-captain Wymer
(39.35), Marshall (39.25), Kabnick
(39.2.25) and sophomore Andrea
McDonald (38.925) finished second,
third, fourth and sixth, respectively.
LSU's Wood won the title with a score
of 39.475.
Though Michigan did not win the
meet, coach Bev Plocki was quite
pleased with how the individuals did
overall.
"They did a great job." Plocki
said. "We didn't have our best meet,
but we did not have a bad meet. I'm
not disappointed by any stretch of
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the imagination."
Up FOR GRABS: The consensus
around the Central region seems to be
that a number of teams competing at
Nationals are capable of winning the
title.
"I think anyone in the top five has a
chance to win the national title," Wood
said. "We believe we are on the hunt for
anything that is out there."
The team which is able to stay fo-
cused and get perfect or near perfect
performances from all members could
be the determining factor.
"Everybody is so close that if one
person makes a mistake, that gives
somebody else room to step up," Ala-
bama senior Chasity Junkin said.
SELECTION PROCESS: Alabama,
Michigan and LSU all qualified for the
NCAA Championships to be held April
21-23 in Athens, GA. The 12 teams
which make up the field are determined
by the winners of the five separate
regions receiving automatic bids. Seven
at-large bids are given to the teams with
the next highest regional scores.
Georgia, the winner of the South-
eastregional with a score of 197.575, is
the No. I seed. Alabama has the second
seed, Utah (196.625 and Midwest Re-
gional champions) is the third seed and
UCLA (195.9 and West) is the fourth
seed. Penn State alsoqualified.
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1002 PONTIAC TR.
994-1367
Set your ' Ft on SPRING!
MARK FRIEDMAN/Daily
Michigan's Wendy Marshall celebrates her perfect score on the vault.
Marshall won the event and finished third in the all-around competition.
Ao d'
for your eyeglasses and eye exams
GYMNASTICS
Continued from page 1
Utah and UCLA.
But the Wolverines have the poten-
tial for even better scores than the one
they posted. In fact, after a 196.500 in
the Big Ten Championships,
Michigan's score disappointed many.
"I think that we did well, but we
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could've done better," Plocki said.
"We were not our sharpest. We had
a couple of breaks and we had said
coming into this meet that the teams
are so closely matched that it was
going to come down to who hit the
most routines."
During the first rotation Michigan
jumped out to an early lead and had a
score of 48.525.
However, after sitting out with a
bye during the first rotation, Ala-
bama later took the lead with a
49.525 in the vault.
For the next four hours, Ala-
bama continued to edge out the com-
petition in every event - and it
turned out to be enough for the vic-
tory.
"We knew if we went on and hit
then we could come out on top,"
Alabama senior Chasity Junkin said.
"I think there are some areas we
need to work on, like bars and floor,
but other than that we knew we
could do it."
Apparently, the floor exercise was
a problem for many of the squads.
Michigan certainly had its share of
troubles on the floor.
"We had twoout of boundsdeduc-
tions and that floor just didn't seem to
be big enough for a lot of people to-
night," Plocki said.
"You have to give it to Alabama.
I don't think they counted any
breaks. They did a great job, and
they're known for coming through
in the championship meets - hit-
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