Can you believe that it’s February already?! Time is flying by so quickly! I personally am impressed with the weather this year. It hasn’t been too cold and the sun has been shining! It definitely puts the team in good spirits. As you know, we just recently had a home meet against Illinois and managed to pull out the “W.” It was a bit of a battle, but a competition isn’t over until the last performer finishes! Unfortunately another teammate got injured but she is doing a great job at being positive and keeping this team together and motivated. I know many might think we have had a rocky start to this season, but the team and I believe that everything happens for a reason; and our team is strong enough to overcome any obstacles that try and stand in our way! (This is Michigan, for God’s sake!) 

We have been working really hard in the gym this week and are excited about having another home meet on Friday. Nothing is better than coming into Crisler Arena and putting on a show for all of you! Next Tuesday we have Mock Rock, and that is when all of the athletic teams put together a skit or a show and raise money for Mott’s Children’s Hospital. We have a great idea that should be really fun to perform (props to Lisa Hass for her input, ha ha) although we haven’t exactly gotten started with the skit. The men’s gymnastics team will perform with us and we will probably choreograph the skit this weekend. We procrastinated it a little bit but I hope it all works out! 

Anyway, PLEASE come out and support us on Friday at 6:00 PM! We absolutely love your support and it is what motivates us even more at competitions! 

Always, Go Blue!

Reema

We have arrived back on campus after taking our first away trip to Minnesota. Even though the meet did not end exactly how we wanted it to, we pulled out the win over Minnesota. Unfortunately, we came home with a few injuries that weren’t expected. However, as a team, we have to come together and be stronger than ever. Every single individual is ready to step up and show what Michigan is all about. At this point in time, we have put everything behind us and we are moving forward with a positive attitude to fight back.

There were many positives that happened in Minnesota. Sachi competed in her first all-around and placed 1st! Also, it was an amazing experience to see how everyone on the team came together after a rough floor rotation and dominated the beam. This showed how mentally tough every single one of us can be. Everyone has been looking extremely consistent during practice, so we are determined to bring that to Crisler this Friday against Illinois. We are excited to be back home competing and can’t wait to show everything we have been working on improving.

GO BLUE! 

Shelby Gies

First, I hope all of you had a great holiday season and a Happy New Year! Here in Ann Arbor we just started our second semester of classes! Everyone is really excited to get back into the swing of things as we take new classes and start deciding on majors (a big step for the 6 sophomores in the group)!  But enough about school, let’s get to the really exciting thing on everyone’s mind. Season 2012 is finally here! We open at Crisler Arena against Ohio State this Friday at 6 p.m. The team is super excited to show off our new routines, especially against one of our great Big 10 rivals. We have been working really hard in the gym with some intrasquads and some friendly competitions, so we are feeling very prepared to have a fun season opener! And don’t forget, cheering from all of you fans will always help! We love hearing you supporting us. Having a young team this year (we don’t have any seniors) there are going to be a lot of new faces and routines out on the floor and we cannot wait to show off all of our hard work to you guys! So wear your maize and cheer for the Blue! Hope to see each and everyone of you there!

It’s gonna be an awesome season! This is just the beginning of a great year!

GO BLUE!!!

Love,

Teresa Arthur

It has been a while since I wrote to you guys, but I am writing today to talk to you all about our Intrasquad we just had in Crisler Arena!

That was a fun experience for our team this year. We were so excited to get back into Crisler Arena again and feel that meet environment. Intrasquad is definitely a lot different than an actual meet because we are doing routines for fun and to get a feel for what it is like to use Crisler’s equipment and everything. It was nice to do gymnastics in a fun, low pressure environment, but still have a crowd there watching us!

 Once again, we are so happy that so many people came out to watch us. Our fans mean the world to us, without them, gymnastics would be a lot harder. Thanks for all the support!

So Intrasquad had some shaky moments, and some falls, but that’s what it is for right? We got out any jitters or nervous feelings we had and know what it is like to be out there competing. As a whole, we all know what we have to work on so we can go out there and show what were made of at our first meet on January 13^th against OSU.

Right now, we are just in the gym focusing on consistency and confidence with every routine. We want to make sure we hit those handstands, and stick the landings on each event. We are definitely working together as a team to be ready for competition.

On a personal note, it was awesome for me to get out there and show what I can do on bars, beam, and floor. That was the first time I had ever done a bar or floor routine in Crisler, so it was pretty exciting for me. I had so much fun and I hope to be out there competing this season! I am just going to stay focused every practice and continue to make my routines even better, and my teammates are doing the same.

I cannot wait for the first meet; we are all so excited to start up season again! I hope you are all excited too, and more importantly COME SUPPORT US JANUARY 13^th IN CRISLER—6 PM SHARP!!

Thanks, I hope to see you all there, and have a good one,

Kristin Nagle

I don’t think I could have picked a better school! Starting off in the summer as a freshman was nerve racking, but being able to start early and get acquainted with the campus with not as much hustle and bustle really helped me get a step ahead. I took two classes this summer and it helped me get into college mode. The Academic Center is a great place to study with other athletes and get the tutor if you need it which makes staying on top of my work really simple. The team was amazing and so welcoming and they offered help with any problem you had.

Recently we volunteered at a Buddy Walk. Annette and I worked the cotton candy which was a big hit for all the kids, it was kind of hard to keep up sometimes. Then just a couple weeks ago the team went of a retreat where we did some great team bonding. We sat around a campfire that night, sang our favorites songs and made s’mores. We had a great time and I felt I really connected with my team that weekend. I have been blessed with such a wonderful team and school and hope we have an awesome season!

Go Blue!

Sachi

Other Updates:

Weekly Warmup #4: Stephanie Colbert

Weekly Warmup #3: Sachi

Fall 2011: Team Retreat

Fall 2011: Pre Season Vault

Can you believe the competitive season is over?  I know I can’t!  The season flew by and we wrapped it up by making NCAAs Super Six for the first time in about six years!  As a freshman, I must say it was quite an experience being on the floor at NCAAs!  I know I had a lot of fun being out there cheering everyone on, and I am sure the rest of the team can say the same. 

Now that Nationals are over we get a two week break from practices, which allows us a whole lot of time for studying for our upcoming finals.  After finals, some of us will be going home for spring term, while others will be staying here in Ann Arbor to take a class or two, and will be getting back into the gym to start up some new skills.  Many of us have been talking about the new skills we want to work on over the summer, and we are all really excited to upgrade our routines.  We are also really looking forward to work out with our incoming freshmen over the summer, and getting to know them really well before fall rolls around. 

I must say that even though we are going to have a really close team next year, I am going to miss our seniors a ton!  They have been the greatest leaders, and each of them has inspired me and the rest of the team in so many ways.  They have taught us underclassmen so much throughout the year, and I know we are going to remember everything they taught us so we can carry on the tradition of excellence together.  I wish them all the luck in their futures because they truly deserve it! 

Hope you all enjoyed watching our a-MAIZE-ing season!  Get ready for another awesome season next year!  GO BLUE!

Tori Kane

 P.S. Congrats to Kylee Botterman for winning the NCAA all-around!

We have been continuing our hard work in the gym since Regionals and everybody looks amazing! We are ready to continue our success in our finals meets of the season. We leave tomorrow and are taking a bus to Cleveland. Thursday we’ll have a practice day where we will get to feel out the equipment. Most of us freshman have never competed on podium, so it should be a fun experience. We compete Friday morning, and are really hoping to go to Super Six on Saturday! Hopefully we will also have event finalists competing on Sunday.

Yesterday was our last practice of the season in the gym. We had a really fun day. We had two groups and made it Seniors vs. Freshman and Sophomores. Our seniors are so amazing and they won. We ended the practice with a little bit of fun by having the seniors pick one of us to do their floor routine. Natalie did a great impression of Jordan’s routine, and Teresa made up a really funny routine of Trish’s routine. It has been such a great year, and I’m really glad that we had such an amazing senior class. They will be greatly missed.

Wish us luck this weekend!!!

Love, Joanna

Wow! Can you say Regional Champs!? That was one of the most exciting gymnastics meets I have ever been a part of! We worked so hard in practice the past couple of weeks to clean up routines, practice those stuck landings, and have confidence going into Regionals. All that hard work paid off and we came out with a win! I am so proud of each and every one of my teammates, and their performance at the meet! Also, thanks to all of our fans for coming to the meet and supporting us at Regionals at our home arena!

Now we are gearing up for Nationals in the gym, continuing to fine-tune every skill, and keeping the energy up in the next two weeks! We are so pumped for next weekend! We have a countdown on the mirror at the gym, and every time I look at it I cannot believe that Nationals is so close, and that my very first season is coming to the end. It went by soooo fast!! It feels like just yesterday that I was moving into my dorm room, anxiously waiting to see my locker, and to practice at our gorgeous gym. I am going to miss all of our amazing seniors next year! Every single one of them has had an impact on me in some way, of course all good things, and I am sure my teammates feel the same way!

As for us freshmen who have another three years here, we are so excited for the years to come! Jo, Tori, and I are going to be living in a house together next year, which will be a learning experience to say the least. Jo is going to teach me and Tori how to cook because she apparently knows how to cook, and Tor and me…not so much. We can make mac and cheese from the box, well I can…but Tor might burn down the house. We made a deal that Jo and I would do the cooking, and Tori would do the cleaning because she loves to clean, unlike me. Anyways, we cannot wait to move into our house, and get out of our “box” (meaning the dorms) that we live in now.

After Nationals, most of us head home the next week once all of our finals are done. Some people are taking spring classes, and others are taking summer classes so we will be back up here in the summer. Also, most of us will be here working Michigan Gymnastics Camp!! I will be working both weeks, and I think staying in the dorms both weeks!! So I can’t wait to see everyone at camp!

Again, thanks to all of our fans for coming to the meets all year and supporting us! We couldn’t do it without you! GO BLUE!

Kristin Nagle

Can you believe it is already the end of March and Regionals is just right around the corner?!  The team is getting very excited as we continue to prepare for the weekend ahead.  Last week, the team focused on fine tuning our skills and routines.  We did a mock meet at the beginning of this week, and the team is feeling confident and ready to go!  We have a day off of practice on Wednesday, and then we head to Crisler Arena on Thursday and Friday to prepare for competition on Saturday.  This year our team motto has been, “Expect It, Believe It, Achieve It – Together,” and that will continue to motivate us on Saturday.

The seniors and I were counting down the days of practice we have left in our gym, and it is under ten now!  It is exciting, yet sad, that we can fit the days of practice left on only two hands.  This team has been my family for the past four years, and I want to use this team talk to thank everyone involved with Michigan’s gymnastics.  It has truly been a special and amazing experience to be a part of this team.  I have been able to meet and become best friends with extraordinary people that will continue to be a part of my life once I leave the University of Michigan.  I will not forget the experiences I have had, the things I have learned, or the relationships I have formed.  There is without doubt I can describe my four years with this team as, “The Michigan Difference.”

Thank you, and Go Blue!!

Trish

This past weekend was the Big Ten Championship meet. We set out to travel to Minnesota last Thursday to compete against six other competitive teams. Practice day was on Friday and the team wore our new “Hail” tights to the arena and showed our confidence as we approached each event. As soon as practice ended everyone retreated back to their hotel rooms and got ready for the annual banquet. Sarah, Natalie, Kylee, and Jordan were recognized for being First and Second Big Ten All Conference Team during the banquet! We all concluded the night with a team meeting in Bev’s hotel room. We sat together and discussed how ready ad motivated everyone was to go out and show how to represent The University of Michigan. 

We arrived bright and early at the arena walking in cheering loud and proud! Our neon sweatshirts amazed everyone and all eyes were on us. We started out on vault extremely strong, nailing and sticking everything we could. After ending the bar rotation a little shaky, we regrouped in the locker room before beam and turned everything around. All the fans knew a door opened for any team to step up and win the meet but we weren’t going to let that happen. The beam team came out with confidence and did their job, performing all routines the same we do in practice. As we moved on to floor, we knew there was no room for deductions and every tenth mattered! We were full of energy and ready to show the crowd how we deserve to be the champions. All eyes were on us until the very end as we performed and stuck all landings. 

Michigan was called up to the first place podium spot for the fifth year in a row! They handed us our winning shirts and hats and of course the huge trophy. The excitement carried on throughout the night. I was so proud of the team, knowing that we can overcome any minor setback and not let that effect the rest of our meet. Everyone fought for every tenth and really showed what it was like to be a team. Our energy is high and we are ready to fix minor details for the regional meet next weekend. We are all so excited we get to compete in Crisler one more time this year with our seniors! Our season is just beginning and we are going to do whatever it takes to reach the goals we have this year! Go Blue! 

 Shelby Gies