Coaches’ Update from Scott
Hi Fans,
With the season at the half way point, it is very evident to us that this team is exceptionally talented! The quality of what we see each day in practice is impressive, and with the exception of a few of our Balance Beam performances in meets, I think it’s becoming obvious to those who have seen us recently that we are going to move up and challenge many of the top teams we will be facing in the coming weeks.
To update you, two weekends ago we competed at West Virginia and had an outstanding meet! We scored 196.4 and continued to improve on the small details on Vault, Uneven Bars, and Floor Exercise and we performed well on Beam for the second meet in a row! After the meet the weather became our biggest challenge as the east coast region was blasted with a large snowstorm. We weren’t able to get to our planned restaurant due to the road conditions that night, so we slowly made our way back to the hotel and had dinner there. Our flight home on Saturday was cancelled as well as many of the airports in the region closed, and we settled in for an extra day in Morgantown. We occupied our time studying, watching a movie or two, and playing Euchre tournaments in the lobby.
Last weekend we hosted Minnesota and again put up some good performances on each of the events! Unfortunately we counted a fall on Beam and finished with a team score of 195.05. It was still our high home score for the year (well, at least up to this coming weekend)! Individually, 4 time Big Ten Freshman of the Week Natalie Beilstein won Vault with a season tying high of 9.90, Sarah Curtis took the Bar title with a 9.875 as well as the All-Around with a 39.2, Kelsey Knutson was great on the Beam and took top honors with a 9.875, and Kylee Botterman did another amazing routine and finished on top with a 9.875.
This weekend we host the University of Utah Friday night at 7:30 pm and we appear ready to break out a really strong meet! Practice has been good this week and the girls are anxious for the meet to arrive. It is our alumni meet and a number of our past Student-Athletes will be in attendance as well as hopefully all of you!
Our competition schedule is exceptionally strong throughout the second half of the season with each of the teams we compete against having qualified to the NCAA Championships last April. During the next two weekends we will travel take on two of the other highly ranked Big Ten powers in Illinois and Penn State. They both have had impressive showings this year as well, and of course it will put our Big Ten Conference 31 meet win streak on the line. These friendly rivalries are great for our sport and are very motivating for our team!
It’s time for us to step up and show what we are capable of doing! And I believe we are ready to do so. Come follow us, and enjoy the show!!
Go Blue!
Scott