Postmeet Quotes: NCAA Individual Event Finals
4/20/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Gymnastics
April 20, 2014
Michigan Head Coach Bev Plocki
On Sachi Sugiyama and her first appearance in event finals... "Gosh, we just tried to get her to relax. She was very nervous, maybe more excited than nervous. We tried to get her to forget it was finals and forget all the things that are distractions and concentrate on what got her here in the first place. She had a great vault. I was very proud of her."
On Joanna Sampson... "Like I said the other day, what more can you say? She should go out having so much pride in what she's done and her accomplishments. It was a great routine and had great performances all the way around this weekend. That floor routine was incredible. It was an exciting way to finish."
U-M Senior Joanna Sampson
On uneven bars and changing the dismount... "We had a little bit of a plan. Scott [Sherman] wanted to see what people did in front of me. If there was a chance, I would have stuck with the double layout dismount. I'm more consistent with it and I can do it better. Before I went up there, he told me it was my call. I got up there and was maybe a little too focused on getting that first handstand after the hop. I had to fight for it. After that, I thought, 'Well, I might as well.' It was totally improvised. I'm pretty good at that. Overall, I'm happy with the performance. I haven't done that dismount since last year. It was fun to end with it."
On the emotions prior to her floor exercise routine... "You know, I was actually really nervous, probably the most nervous I had been in a while only because of what I did last year. I went up there and all I could think of was doing what I know how to do. I think I did exactly that."
On the routine... "In my opinion, I think it was better than last year and was almost as good as I was in preliminarieson Friday. I didn't think my landings were as clean this time. Overall, though, I couldn't be happier with how I did. To do it for my teammates and for Michigan, that's what the goal was."
U-M Junior Sachi Sugiyama
On the emotions of competing in her first individual event finals... "I was just in awe of all the fantastic gymnasts that went before me. You've got someone like Bridget [Sloan] lead off and sticking it from the leadoff spot. They were all amazing. I was like, 'Whoa'. It was an amazing and true honor to be there. It was also nice to be with Joanna in her final performance. I couldn't be prouder of her."
