12A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, December 5, 1996
Intrasquad competitions kick off'96-'97 gymnastics' seasons.
Healthy women tumblers kick off season
Men's gymnastics tumbles into action
By Sara Rontal
For the Daily
Put away the Band-Aids and ace
bandages; the Michigan women's
gymnastics team is finally healthy
and ready to start fresh this season.
With five consecutive Big Ten
championships and four straight
trips to the NCAA championships,
the women's gymnastics team has
much to look forward to in 1997
"I'm extremely excited about the
season," Michigan coach Bev Plocki
said. "The returning gymnasts that
we have from last season, and the
freshman that we gain, will supply us
with a considerably deeper team."
This season the team is healthier
and stronger than last year's injury-
plagued squad.
This year's goal is another Big Ten
title - and yet another trip to the
NCAA championship. Leading the
team are senior co-captains Andrea
McDonald and Autumn Donati.
McDonald knows how to lead by
example. When her teammates were
injured last year, she stepped up her
performance and nailed some of the
best scores of her career. In a stellar
season, she established career highs
including Big Ten runner-up status in
the vault, a third-place finish in the
floor exercise and sixth place on the
uneven bars.
"I feel Andrea will be an excellent
leader for us, both with her work
ethic and leadership abilities,"
Plocki said. "She has always man-
aged to be a consistent producer for
us."
Donati - a specialist on the vault
and in the floor exercise - scored
career bests in 1996 with a 9.40
score on the vault.
As freshmen last season, Beth
Amelkovich, Kathy Burke, Kristin
Duff, Nikki Peters and Lisa Simes
helped lead the team to four Big Ten
event titles, while garnering four All-
Big Ten and four All-America cita-
tions between them.
"Our sophomores stepped up last
year and won Big Ten event titles as
freshmen," Plocki said. "The experi-
ence they gained at the Big Tens and
NCAAs, coupled with the meet com-
petition, gives us a solid nucleus of
talent and experience for the upcom-
ing year."
With four new members joining
the squad this season, the
Wolverines' depth has increased sig-
nificantly. These freshmen, Sarah
Cain, Kellee Davis, Sarah-Elizabeth
See TUMBLERS, Page 13A
By Eugene Bowen
Daily Sports Writer
This year's Michigan men's gymnas-
tics team will be sporting a new look.
The Wolverines have a new head coach
and assistant coach, 10 freshmen and
transfer students, and a newly-refur-
bished practice facility. Michigan's tum-
blers are certainly hoping that all this
novelty will work to their advantage.
At 7 p.m. tomorrow at Cliff Keen
Arena, Michigan's season will kick off
with the Maize and Blue Intrasquad
competition. While only Wolverines will
participate and the scores will have no
bearing on Big Ten rankings, this first
competition will still be important.
Senior co-captain Flavio Martins said
the meet will provide everyone a chance
to see what this year's team has to offer.
"The purpose of the Maize and
Blue (Intrasquad) is to advertise and
show people what we can do," he
said. "It's also a chance for us to look
at ourselves and see how we're look-
ing competitive-wise."
Senior co-captain Jason MacDonald
concurred.
"I hope we go into this competition
seriously," he said. "This is a fun meet.
But our season begins Friday with the
intrasquad; we can't afford to forget that."
MacDonald will be competing on
the vault, the parallel and horizontal
bars'and on the floor exercises.
For freshman Jose Haro, who will be
competing in the all-around, the Maize
and Blue Intrasquad has personal signif-
icance. It will be his first opportunity t
compete in an environment where team
is stressed more than the individual.
Haro competed in the World
Championships last year with the
Mexican national team, and he said
tomorrow's meet will be his first taste
of collegiate competition.
"This is very different from what I'm'
used to," he said. "Collegiate competi-
tion is more team-oriented, whereas with
international competition everything i
much more individual."
Sophomore Randy D'Amura said
the intrasquad competition will be
most important for the Michigan's
newest members, like Haro.
With freshmen and transfer stu-
dents comprising more than half of
the team's 16-man roster, it will be
critical that the Wolverines become
acclimated to collegiate level compe-
tition as quickly as possible.
Haro said that he will take advantag
of tomorrow's opportunity to acclimate
himself to his new home floor.
"I'm just trying to get used to every-
thing," he said.
FILEt P UiTUUaiiy
The Michigan men's gymnastics team looks to 10 new faces to replace Paul Bischoff.
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