Michigan
NCAA Super Six Team Finals
Wolverines Finish Fifth at NCAA Super Six Team Finals
4/25/2003 12:00:00 AM | Women's Gymnastics
LINCOLN, Neb. -- The University of Michigan women's gymnastics team gave everything it had in tonight's (Friday, April 25) NCAA National Championships Super Six Team Finals at the Bob Devaney Sports Center and walked away with a score of 196.050 and a fifth-place finish. After a rollercoaster season of injuries and depth issues, the Wolverines came together to overcome the obstacles before them and capture a top-five finish for the seventh time in school history.
Junior All-American Calli Ryals (Elyria, Ohio/Midview HS) paced the team with a all-around score of 39.500, which tied the second-highest U-M all-around score in school history and tied for sixth in the meet. She composed her score by tying for third on the uneven bars with a 9.925, tying for fifth on the floor with a 9.900 and tying for 10th on the balance beam with a 9.875. Freshman Jenny Deiley (Dayton, Minn./Elk River HS) increased her school-record number of all-around scores of 39.000 or higher in a single season to 14 and extended her school-record number of consecutive all-around scores of 39.000 or higher to 13 with a 39.375, which was second-highest on the team and placed her in a tie for 10th place.
The Wolverines opened the meet on the balance beam, their strongest event, in the first rotation. Five solid routines helped the squad to a 49.075, U-M's second-highest beam score in eight Super Six appearances. The effort was led by Ryals' 9.875 as the final competitor. She opened her routine with a great flight series and finished with a strong landing. Just before Ryals, senior co-captain Janessa Grieco (Mahopac, N.Y./Carmel HS) performed a solid routine, which included a big smile after an inverted skill, and earned the second-highest team score with a 9.825 and put her in a tie for ninth place. The first-year duo of Deiley and Becca Clauson (St. Paul, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall HS) posted identical scores of 9.800, and sophomore Chelsea Kroll (Wexford, Pa./North Allegheny HS) helped the team with a 9.775.
Moving on to the floor exercise in the third rotation, Michigan posted a 49.225 to stay in the hunt for the national title. Two-time floor exercise All-American Ryals led the Wolverines with a 9.900, tying the fourth-highest floor score by a U-M gymnast at the Super Six. For the second consecutive event, Grieco had a solid routine. She tumbled her way to a 9.875 for the team's second-highest mark on the event. In another repeat of the first rotation, Deiley and Clauson scored identical marks. The duo each scored 9.850 on the event, while sophomore Lauren Mirkovich (Burlingame, Calif./Notre Dame HS) chipped in with a 9.750.
After three rotations, each school had completed two events and UCLA was leading the competition with a 98.800. However, the top five schools were all within six-tenths of a point. Alabama was in second with a 98.600, and Georgia, with a 98.500, was just .100 behind the Crimson Tide. Michigan held down fourth with a score of 98.300, but Nebraska was close on the heels of the Wolverines with a 98.200. Utah, which suffered the loss of All-American Theresa Kulikowski in the first rotation, was in sixth with a 97.025.
In the fourth rotation, U-M moved on to the vault where it tallied a 48.950. Kroll tied her second-best score of the season and led the team with a 9.875 on the apparatus. Deiley had a 9.825, the team's second-highest mark, as the final competitor in the rotation. Close behind Deiley with a solid vault was Ryals, who posted a 9.800. Mirkovich and Clauson each helped the Wolverines' effort with matching scores of 9.725.
After a bye in the fifth rotation, Michigan entered the final round of competition on its weakest event, the uneven bars, and needed a top-notch effort to make a run for fourth place. Unfortunately for the Wolverines, they had to count a major mistake and ended with a team score of 48.800. On the bright side for U-M was a team-high 9.925 by Ryals, which tied her for third place, and a 9.900 by Deiley, which tied her for sixth place. Michigan also counted scores of 9.800 by Grieco, 9.775 by sophomore Kara Rosella (Ann Arbor, Mich./Greenhills School) and 9.400 by Kroll.
No. 1-ranked UCLA won its third NCAA title in the last four years with a 197.825. No. 5 Alabama (197.275) finished second, No. 4 Georgia (197.150) took third, No. 2 Nebraska (197.125) was fourth and No. 8 Utah (195.300) was sixth.
Tonight's event completes the team competition for the 2003 women's gymnastics season. The final event is the NCAA Individual Event Finals tomorrow night (Saturday, April 26, 7 p.m. CDT). Clauson and Ryals will compete on the balance beam and floor exercise, respectively, for a shot at an NCAA individual title.
Final Results
| Team Scores | Vault | Bars | Beam | Floor | Total |
| 1. UCLA | 49.350 | 49.450 | 49.525 | 49.500 | 197.825 |
| 2. Alabama | 49.225 | 49.425 | 49.250 | 49.375 | 197.275 |
| 3. Georgia | 49.225 | 49.350 | 49.300 | 49.275 | 197.150 |
| 4. Nebraska | 49.550 | 48.800 | 49.400 | 49.375 | 197.125 |
| 5. MICHIGAN | 48.950 | 48.800 | 49.075 | 49.225 | 196.050 |
| 6. Utah | 49.225 | 48.675 | 48.350 | 49.050 | 195.300 |
Event-By-Event U-M Individual Scores
ALL-AROUND Calli Ryals 39.500 (t6) Jenny Deiley 39.375 (t10) Janessa Grieco 39.200 Chelsea Kroll 38.725 VAULT Lauren Mirkovich 9.725 Janessa Grieco 9.700 Becca Clauson 9.725 Calli Ryals 9.800 Chelsea Kroll 9.875 (t10) Jenny Deiley 9.825 UNEVEN BARS Janessa Grieco 9.800 Chelsea Kroll 9.400 Calli Ryals 9.925 (t3) Jenny Deiley 9.900 (t6) Lauren Mirkovich 9.350 Kara Rosella 9.775 BALANCE BEAM Kara Rosella 9.575 Chelsea Kroll 9.775 Jenny Deiley 9.800 Becca Clauson 9.800 Janessa Grieco 9.825 Calli Ryals 9.875 (t10) FLOOR EXERCISE Chelsea Kroll 9.675 Lauren Mirkovich 9.750 Becca Clauson 9.850 Jenny Deiley 9.850 Janessa Grieco 9.875 (t9) Calli Ryals 9.900 (t5) ( ) denotes place in the Top 10
N O T E S
In Saturday's (April 26) Individual Event Finals, Becca Clauson will compete third out of 10 competitors on the balance beam, while Calli Ryals will compete sixth out of nine competitors on the floor exercise.
Q U O T E S
Head Coach Bev Plocki
On the fifth-place finish and the season ... "I'm extremely pleased. I would have liked to have finished a little stronger on our last event, but we hit the first 18 routines before we came to bars. We weren't quite as polished as we could have been, but that's a lot of pressure. Before we came here tonight, I asked them how many of them had been to a Super Six before and four of them raised their hands; two of those four were not competing tonight. We had, for the most part, a brand new team on the floor experiencing this for the first time. I think they did a heck of a job. I told them before we came in that anything we did that was better than sixth was going to be great. Just to be here is great; even if we would have finished sixth I would have been happy. This has been an incredible season. I am so proud of each one of these young ladies. I think we did as well as we could do tonight."
On looking ahead to next year ... "We've already been talking about how awesome next year is going to seem because of how much some of these athletes have grown this year. Lots of them have developed in ways that they may not have if we had been healthy. We're going to benefit from how much they have developed this year. Hopefully we are going to get Elise (Ray) back, plus we are going to add four very talented freshmen to our lineup. So when we look forward to that, it's extremely exciting."
On the highlights of the championships so far ... "There are a lot of bright spots. Our only senior, whose last meet was tonight, goes out there and rocks four events. Two of our freshmen who have come through for us all year long -- Jenny Deiley in the all-around and Becca Clauson, who is going to be in beam finals tomorrow night -- both of them come away from this meet as first team All-Americans. And Kara Rosella, who was a walk-on athlete, she has developed more in the last four months than I could have ever dreamed would be possible. She has come through for us so many times this year when we were in a pinch. After we had the mess-ups on bars tonight, she came through in the sixth position. Even though she hasn't been the highest scorer this season, when I look back at this season I will always remember what Kara Rosella did for this team."
Freshman Jenny Deiley
On the season and tonight ... "I think that this season we did way better than anyone ever expected, and I'm just really proud of how we did tonight. We didn't count any falls until bars and did our best tonight."
On the future significance of making the Super Six tonight ... "It's definitely a confidence booster, having the experience of being here, especially when no one expected us to be here. It was great competing tonight."
On a highlight of her meet ... "Sticking my bars dismount! And just having a great all-around meet tonight ... for the second night in a row."
Junior Calli Ryals
On the season and tonight ... "We've had a season and ups and downs this year. We've been plagued with a lot of injuries, like losing one of our best competitors, Elise Ray. This whole season has been a challenge for us. A lot of girls who hadn't competed on certain events had to step it up and that was a big challenge for us. I think having a young team is just going to make us stronger for years to come because we have a young team that got a lot of experience out of this year."
Contact: Jason Gerdom (734) 763-4423
Players Mentioned
