No. 16 Gymnastics Ready for Success in 2010 Season
1/5/2010 12:00:00 AM | Gymnastics
Jan. 5, 2010
COLUMBIA, Mo. - The 2009-10 Missouri gymnastics team has made their debut, but the season truly gets under way against Ohio State Jan. 8 at 6:30 p.m. in the Hearnes Center. The annual Black and Gold exhibition meet was a great preview for the fans as the Tigers put up solid performances on both sides. The Gold squad came out with the win, 156.000-155.350. Had it been a real meet the top five scores on each event would have given Missouri a total of 196.600.
The Tigers are now nearing the completion of their preseason practices and inching closer to the beginning of the regular season. Missouri heads into the season ranked No. 16 after finishing a record setting 2009 season at No. 13. Four talented freshmen join the eight returners from last year's team, all possessing talents to make history for the Missouri gymnastics program.
"We're excited about the upcoming season," Head Coach Rob Drass said. "We've had a great preseason of training and had one of our most successful intra-squads ever in December."
Senior All-American Sarah Shire and sophomore Mary Burke, the two returning all-around competitors, will lead the team with their skill and experience. Although this year's squad is smaller than in recent seasons Missouri returns 70 percent of its lineup from last year on the four events. The coaches are now working to determine who will make the regular season meet lineups.
"The nice thing about this year is that I think we are going to have four strong events," Drass said. "I think we can go 49.000 plus on all four events and score in the 196s on a regular basis."
Vault: The vault has been a strong spot for the Tigers in recent years. The team returns five of the six competitors from last year's lineup that averaged 49.008 in 12 meets. Returners Burke and junior Alex Gold showed their strength on the event by each posting 9.900 at the Black and Gold meet. Shire, who earned her first team All-America status on the event, will look to improve upon her 9.879 average from the 2009 season. There will be heavy competition for the vault lineup as Drass expects it to consist of who ever is looking strongest at the time.
Uneven Bars: The Tigers have put a lot of work in on bars this offseason. Drass believes the team will be stronger than originally thought on the event. Senior Becky Scholle and sophomore Allie Heizelman join Burke and Shire as the returners to the lineup. Senior Danielle Guider, Gold and freshman Lauren Swankoski are looking the strongest in the preseason, according to Drass, to become members of the lineup. Freshman Sandra Ostad, who joined the team in late 2009, brings international experience to event as she currently holds the bars title from the 2009 Northern European Championships. She is expected to battle for a spot as well.
Balance Beam: "Beam is one of those events where any day it can go bad," Drass said. "But I think we have a strong and solid beam team." Once again, the Tigers return four of their six beam workers from 2009, which Drass believes adds some stability. Senior Brooke Boehmer has been excellent as a beam specialist for the team the past few seasons and holds a career high of 9.875 on the event. Burke, Guider and Shire are the others who held down a spot in the lineup last year and all posted a 9.900 at Black and Gold. The coaches are looking to see who is going to be the most solid on the event to earn spots in the lineup. The team is continuing intra-squads in practice to see whom those spots will go to. Drass explains that it's determining who can handle the pressure.
Floor Exercise: Drass believes the Tigers are stronger on floor than they have been in some time and have the ability to score higher than in the past. The 2009 team averaged 49.031 and posted a season-high 49.300 against Illinois. Burke, Gold, Guider and Shire make up the returning lineup and according to Drass are better and stronger than last year. Freshmen Brittany Bendoff, Tori Howard and Swankoski all posted strong scores at Black and Gold, while Heizelman and sophomore Tara Foster have also been working hard on the event. Drass expects it to be one of the stronger events and be a great ending to every home meet.
"We expect to come out and be strong right away," Drass said. "Hopefully we will have one of our best seasons ever."
Players Mentioned
