Weekly Release #5
2/9/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Gymnastics
Upcoming Schedule
Saturday, Feb. 12 -- at Minnesota (Minneapolis, Minn.), 2 p.m. CST
Saturday, Feb. 19 -- at Penn State (State College, Pa.), 7 p.m.
Looking Ahead to Minnesota
The No. 3-ranked University of Michigan men's gymnastics team (5-2) heads to Minneapolis this Saturday (Feb. 12) to take on the No. 9 ranked Minnesota Gophers at The Sports Pavilion at 2 p.m. The Wolverines prevailed over Minnesota each of the four times the teams met during the 2004 season.
Scouting the Gophers
The Gophers are currently ranked ninth in the country with a season-average score of 213.269. They are led by senior Guillermo Alvarez, who was recently named to the U.S National Team based on his performance at the recent Winter Cup (Feb. 4-5). Michigan fans will remember the new Minnesota head coach, Mike Burns. Burns was the Wolverine's assistant coach from 1997-2004. This will be the first time the former Michigan Wolverine meets his former team in dual meet competition.
Recapping the Winter Cup
Seven members of the University of Michigan men's gymnastics team traveled to Las Vegas last weekend (Feb. 4-5) to compete against the nation's best in the USA Gymnastics-sponsored Winter Cup. The Wolverines had a strong showing, with four gymnasts placing in the top 20 in the all-around.
In Friday's (Feb. 4) all-around finals and event preliminaries, junior Justin Laury (Marietta, Ga./McEachern HS) was the highest placing Wolverine, grabbing ninth in the all-around with a score of 50.848. Senior Eddie Umphrey (Albuquerque, N.M./La Cueva HS) placed 12th all-around, scoring a 49.614.
Senior co-captain Geoff Corrigan (Colorado Springs, Colo./Palmer HS) took 14th place in the all-around with a 49.049 and qualified for Saturday's (Feb. 5) event finals on parallel bars, where he placed sixth scoring a 7.70. Junior Gerry Signorelli (Colorado Springs, Colo./Mitchell HS) placed 18th in the all-around with a score of 48.614.
Rounding out Michigan's all-around competitors was sophomore Andre Hernandez (Round Rock, Texas/Round Rock HS), who placed 22nd with a score of 47.631. Event specialists Andrew DiGiore (Buffalo, N.Y./City Honors School) and Luke Bottke (Saginaw, Mich./Heritage HS) performed well on their respective events, with DiGiore scoring a 8.90 on vault just behind Bottke's 9.10 on that event.
The slightly lower scores at this meet are due to the new, more difficult rules that the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) has instituted.
Wolverines Return to Collegiate Action After Two Weeks
The Wolverines return to collegiate action this weekend against Minnesota after two weeks. Subsequent to Michigan's upset-win over Oklahoma at Cliff Keen Arena (Jan. 22) the team had a bye-week followed by the Winter Cup (Feb 4-5), in which only a handful of Wolverine gymnasts competed.
The team used that valuable time off from the grind of the regular collegiate season to heal injuries and fine-tune routines. The refreshed Wolverines look to continue where they left off (winning over Oklahoma) as they head into the midpoint of the season.
Wolverines Ranked Nationally
Michigan held its third place national ranking from last week, and looks to improve its scoring average this Saturday (Feb. 12) against Minnesota. As a team, the Wolverines are ranked second on vault (37.442) and on high bar (36.825).
Individually, Umphrey is ranked fourth on vault (9.425), Laury is ranked first on high bar (9.467), eighth on vault (9.383) and second in the all-around (55.50), and Corrigan holds third place on parallel bars (9.433) and in the all-around (55.40).
GymInfo National Rankings (2/7/05)
(by season average)
1. Ohio State 221.562 2. Illinois 221.425 3. MICHIGAN 219.900 4. Oklahoma 217.725 5. Penn State 217.225 6. Iowa 216.375 7. California 214.912 8. Stanford 214.900 9. Minnesota 213.269 10. Navy 210.912
Contact: Justin Toman (734) 936-8256
Players Mentioned
