2001 Big Ten Conference Women's Gymnastics Championships Press Conference
3/23/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Gymnastics
Women's Gymnastics Championships
Comments from Pre-Meet Coaches Press Conference
On participating in the 2001 Big Ten Championships
Illinois Head Coach Bob Starkell
"We're excited to be here. We always know it's going to be an excellent event coming to Ann Arbor. I'm bringing in nine young ladies who are going to be on the competitive floor tomorrow. Actually, the majority of our routines will be from seniors, so we should have a little bit of experience. We're a little low on depth, so hopefully all the routines will count tomorrow and we won't run into any problems.
"We'll try to be focused tomorrow, rather than thinking about basketball. We'll try to stay with gymnastics this weekend.
"We're excited, it's always great to be with these coaches here at this table. I know there's going to be some really talented athletes and talented teams. We're probably going to see some of the best gymnastics in the country tomorrow. Not really any standout athletes on our team, but we are looking for our strongest competitors to be our seniors."
Iowa Head Coach Mike Lorenzen
"I'm very excited about my second Big Ten meet. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing last year, and I've got marginally more idea this year. I'm convinced after two years in the Big Ten that this is the strongest and best conference in the country. This meet is a big reason. Michigan always does a great job of hosting events, and we're very excited about the venue and all the pageantry that will surround the event.
"We've had an unbelievable season and that is in spite of, rather than a tribute to, the coaching, but we're the opposite of Illinois in that we don't have a whole lot of senior leadership. We have three freshmen that have done about 50 percent of our gymnastics this year. Anytime that you have a young team, you never really know what's going to happen out there on the floor. I think our kids are fired up, and they're ready to have a fun experience tomorrow. What happens, who knows, but I'm sure it'll be a fun and exciting event."
Michigan Head Coach Beverly Plocki
"I'm very excited for this weekend; it's finally arrived. There's been a lot of planning and a lot of promotion that's gone into this weekend. One of the things that I realized as I was looking at the Internet this morning and doing an interview with the Detroit Free Press is that this is going to be a heck of a competition. We have five of the seven teams in the top 20. Almost every team at this table has an individual all-arounder that could contend for the all-around title. It's going to be a great, exciting event.
"My team is very excited. We're looking forward to it, and it's going to be great being here in our own arena, hopefully with a big crowd. Just looking forward to the competition itself, as for my team we have a pretty even blend from senior to freshman as far as contributors into our lineup. We do have three very important seniors who do make up a fairly large portion of our squad. But we also have a group of freshman at the other end who are making up probably an equal amount of our squad. We've had a pretty good season so far, but we feel like we are hopefully peaking at the right time. Our best gymnastics are yet to come. We are looking forward to tomorrow night's competition, welcoming all the other teams to Ann Arbor, and hoping that everybody has a fine and very safe competition."
Michigan State Head Coach Kathie Klages
"We're really happy to be here -- so close to home. My team's very excited. We should have a lot of fans in the stands so we're excited about that. This year's team for me is not the most talented team I've ever coached here at Michigan State University, but it is by far the most competitive in terms of their aggressiveness on the competitive floor. For the first time in a long time, we've had a number of meets where we haven't had to count a fall, so we're very pleased and excited about that. I think that we've got a strong contender in the all-around in Christy Limber, and Jaime McIntosh has had an outstanding year this year. We're looking for those two to help lead us and have a great competition tomorrow."
Minnesota co-Head Coach Meg Stephenson
"We've also had a really fun year at Minnesota. We actually have a pretty medium-aged team; we have two seniors that are doing three events, so we have a lot of our stock in our juniors and freshmen.
"We did have an injury last weekend to one of our star freshmen. We have good people ready to step in and back us up, and we feel good about how they filled in for us at Auburn, which is when the injury happened during the warm-up.
"We're thrilled to be at Michigan. They always do a great job running these kinds of meets and we think the competition in the Big Ten is great. This meet is always so much fun. People will ask who do you think will win it, and we'd say it's anybody's meet. It's always fun to be in that kind of situation. And we're looking forward to it."
Ohio State Head Coach Larry Cox
"We're really looking forward to it. I think as the season's gone on, we would all agree that it's climaxing toward this great event because there's so many of us with a great possibility of succeeding. I think that if you finish somewhere in the top three at this competition then you've done a tremendous job.
"I think that at Ohio State we're getting a lot of our workload from our junior class and Lindsey (Vagedes), who is a senior. As a famous basketball coach once said, 'The best thing about freshmen is that they become sophomores.' Our sophomores, who were really nervous last year, have done an unbelievable job. I think that's where the strength of our consistency has come this year. So I can't wail until our freshmen become sophomores next year.
"I also like being at Michigan; it's a nice, easy drive ... flat. I almost fell asleep. But once you're here it's great."
Penn State Head Coach Steve Shephard
"I want to thank the University of Michigan for hosting this competition, as well as the regional competition. We did it last year at Penn State so we know how much planning goes into this and how much support staff it takes. So we want to thank Michigan for making this a special event for all of our student-athletes.
"We're looking forward to the meet as well. We feel our best gymnastics are ahead of us. We were without a training facility for the first part of the preseason. We didn't get into our new training facility until December, but I feel we're on track now and I think we'll have a great competition.
"I want to thank all my colleagues for pushing us and raising the level of gymnastics in the Big Ten. This is the most competitive field of athletes that the Big Ten has ever fielded. I think there's going to be an incredible level of gymnastics out there on the floor and we look forward to having a great competition."
How will this meet affect your Regional Qualifying Score (RQS)
Iowa Head Coach Mike Lorenzen
"For us there's almost a two-point difference between our RQS and the low score we're still dropping, so it could be a huge difference for us. I don't know how much effect it will actually have on the rankings, but we definitely need to have a good score."
Ohio State Head Coach Larry Cox
"If we have a good showing this weekend, at such a large meet like this, it might give us the opportunity to go to our regional. Since we don't have three teams in the top 18 (in our region), they start to bump out teams from the bottom and we happen to be on the bubble right now. So if we have a good meet tomorrow it might help our cause."
Michigan State Head Coach Kathie Klages
"Michigan State is ranked fifth in the region right now but we have an opportunity to possibly be bumped. This meet is crucial to us to get a good score and try to secure that bye."
What does Michigan's Elise Ray, a 2000 Olympic gymnast, mean to this meet
Iowa Head Coach Mike Lorenzen
"I know [competing against Ray in January] was a highlight of our season. One of our freshmen, Alexis Maday, competed against Elise a lot because they are both from the East Coast. It was a huge deal for Alexis to beat Elise in her first competition, where [Elise] was obviously out of shape and not at her best. I think they both have the opportunity to be at their best tomorrow."
Penn State Head Coach Steve Shephard
"We have not competed against Michigan this year, but I think that Elise Ray adds a whole new stature to collegiate women's gymnastics. We're obviously disappointed she chose Michigan instead of Penn State, but I think it's wonderful for the sport of women's gymnastics and brings a whole new level of visibility and validity. We're excited she's here."
Minnesota co-Head Coach Meg Stephenson
"I think we'll see a lot more fans here. We noticed that when we were here at her first meet (Jan. 19). The excitement in the grocery store that Elise Ray was going to be in that meet was great. That's what all of us across the country really want, to increase the fan support of our sport. So when you have an Elise Ray in your conference, and all of those women who went to UCLA, it's only going to help our sport. I think everybody's happy that they went to college, and it will only help our sport in the long run."
Players Mentioned
