NCAA Travels With Women's Gymnastics: Thursday
4/24/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Gymnastics
PENNE SUPERSTITION
Lindsey Bruck has a meet-day superstition that she has carried with her since she was 11 or 12 years old. It has caused her mother to drive hours to satisfy, prompted a number of Google maps searches, and the first time she didn't follow her routine, she fell on beam.
The superstition ... the Olive Garden.
When Lindsey was a young gymnast, her coaches told their athletes to "carb up" the day of a meet. Lindsey took this to heart and decided on the Olive Garden. More than a decade later, Lindsey still makes sure to have Olive Garden before every meet.
"Penne pasta with tomato sauce," Lindsey says.
Nothing fancy, but it seems to have served the All-American well. She will either go with her mom and eat at an Olive Garden, have someone deliver it or have someone pick it up for her. Once, Lindsey recalls, her mom had to drive more than an hour to get her food, then drive back to the team hotel.
"I didn't make her do it," Lindsey says sheepishly, "but she's as superstitious about it as I am now."
Lindsey missed her Olive Garden penne only once, before a meet her junior year. She is fuzzy on the exact reason -- probably because there wasn't an Olive Garden within a reasonable distance -- but she is not unclear about the outcome. "I fell on beam and I've never missed it since."
Today, before the NCAA Preliminaries, Lindsey's mom brought her the same thing she's had for countless years prior to meets big and small. Penne pasta with tomato sauce. Mom and daughter alike are hoping that the tradition can continue for two more meets.
THURSDAY QUICK NOTES
Michigan competes in the same evening session with host and three-time defending national champion Georgia. Georgia head coach Suzanne Yoculan and Michigan head coach Bev Plocki go way back. When Plocki was a senior in high school, she competed in the Pennsylvania Keystone State Games, pitting the best gymnasts in each of the four Pennsylvania regions against one another on four teams. Yoculan, who was a club coach in Pennsylvania at the time, coached Plocki and her squad at the meet. A few years later, Yoculan took the head coaching job at Georgia. "I don't remember what team I was on, but I remember we wore blaze orange leotards and had all-white warmups," recalls Bev.
After Wednesday night's coaches and administrators meeting, Suzanne Yoculan invited all of the coaches, medical and support staffs to her home for a get together. A 15-minute drive from campus, Yoculan's party featured live music, amazing food and tremendous hosts. When shuttle buses that she had arranged to ferry guests from the hotels to her home were late picking up coaches to return to their hotels at the end of the night, Suzanne took charge. She ran down her driveway on her cell phone calling the shuttle company and then personally apologized to all her guests for the delays.
Katie Lieberman's brother, Ryan, is a freshman gymnast for Stanford, which just finished its NCAA Championships last weekend. Stanford placed second in the nation to Oklahoma. "He did well," Katie said of her brother's performance. The Liebermans' parents and grandparents traveled to the meet at Stanford to cheer on Ryan. The same crew, minus Katie's grandfather, will be in Athens to cheer on Katie. "He came to senior night, which was his first collegiate meet. They are pretty long for him, so he's going to stay home for this one."
Players Mentioned
