University of Minnesota Athletics
Men's Gymnastics Squad Travels to Illinois
1/16/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Gymnastics
THIS WEEK: The seventh-ranked Minnesota men’s gymnastics team returns to action Saturday night at 7 p.m., when the Golden Gophers head back to the Land of Lincoln to take on eighth-ranked Illinois at Huff Hall in Champaign.
WINDY CITY REMATCH: Minnesota and Illinois will be squaring off for the second time in as many weeks after doing battle at last weekend’s Windy City Invitational in Chicago. The Gophers scored 340.350 points to place fifth in the seven-team field and will be out to avenge a season-opening setback to the Illini, who finished second in the meet with 347.350 points.
FAMILIAR FOES: Saturday’s rematch with Illinois will be the second of what could potentially be five meetings with the Illini during the 2008 season. In addition to last week’s Windy City Invitational and Saturday night’s dual meet in Champaign, Minnesota will also host Illinois for a tri-meet with Iowa on March 21st at the Sports Pavilion. The two teams will also square off at the 2008 Big Ten Championships in State College, Pa., on April 4-5, and could meet again at the NCAA Championships in Stanford, Calif., on April 17-19.
HEAD TO HEAD: Minnesota and Illinois slugged it out five times during the 2007 season, with the Gophers winning two meetings and the Illini taking three. Both of Minnesota’s wins came in the Twin Cities as the Gophers defeated the Illini in an early-season dual meet and at the Big Ten Championships, which were held at the Sports Pavilion. All three of Illinois’ wins came at neutral sites, including the NCAA Championships. Including its victory over the Gophers in Chicago last weekend, Illinois has now taken two in row and three of its last four meets vs. Minnesota.
A LOOK AT THE GOPHERS: Buoyed by the strong performances of senior Mitchell Mays on the vault and junior Kit Beikmann on the pommel horse, Minnesota opened the season with a solid outing last weekend at the Windy City Invitational. Mays captured the vault title with a score of 16.600 to defeat defending NCAA vault champion David Sender of Stanford by 0.25. It was the top score awarded in any event at the Windy City Invitational, which featured seven of the nation’s top 13 teams, and the highest score in the nation on vault during the first weekend of competition. Beikmann’s scored 14.900 on the pommel horse to take second place behind Illinois’ Daniel Ribeiro (15.250). Other noteworthy performances were turned in by sophomores Cole Storer and Aaron Fortunato. Storer scored 15.800 to place fifth on the vault and 15.050 to take sixth on the floor exercise. Fortunato placed fifth in the all-around competition, totaling 82.300 points.
POLL POSITION: On the heels of a sixth-place NCAA finish, the Minnesota men’s gymnastics team debuted at No. 7 in the preseason edition of the GymInfo Coaches’ Poll. The Big Ten is once again expected to be the nation’s toughest conference, with all six conference teams listed in the poll’s preseason top 10. The next set of national rankings will be released on Monday, Jan. 21.
GOPHERS ON THE BIG TEN NETWORK: The Minnesota men’s gymnastics team will be one of the many Olympic sports benefitting from the new Big Ten Network. The Golden Gophers are scheduled to make three appearances on the network during the 2008 season, beginning with a dual match at defending national champion Penn State on Feb. 2. Minnesota’s home tri-meet with Illinois and Iowa on March 21 will also air on the BTN as will the league’s conference championship on April 4-5.
2008 CAPTAINS: Seniors Steve Vuong and Sergei Dmitriev will serve as Minnesota’s team captains for the 2008 season. The Gophers’ most improved strength award winner last season, Vuong competed in all nine regular-season meets during 2007, plus both the Big Ten and NCAA Championships, and is expected to be a key contributor on rings, parallel bars and high bar this season. Look for Dmitriev to be a contributor pommel horse, parallel bars and floor exercise early in the season and add rings and high bar to his competition repertoire later in the year.
TWO GOPHERS EARN PRESEASON ALL-BIG TEN HONORS: Junior Kit Beikmann and sophomore Andre Berry have been named to the 2008 Preseason All-Big Ten team as voted by the league’s coaches. A 2007 All-American, Beikmann is the reigning pommel horse champion. Berry, the Big Ten Freshman of the Year in 2007, is the Gophers’ top all-arounder.
COACHES PICK GOPHERS FIFTH: Coming off a third place finish at last year’s Big Ten Championships, Minnesota has been tapped to finish fifth in the conference according to the league’s preseason coaches’ poll: 1. Penn State; 2. Michigan; 3. Ohio State; 4. Illinois; 5. Minnesota; 6. Iowa.
NEW SCORING SYSTEM ADOPTED: The 2008 men’s gymnastics season will feature a new scoring system. The NCAA has elected to adopt the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) open-ended Code of Points, which has been used internationally since 2005. The new system allows for scoring above the ever-popular 10 points with each score being broken down into two components: exercise composition and exercise presentation. The gymnast’s final score is the sum of the two elements.
HEAD COACH MIKE BURNS: Mike Burns is in his fourth season as head coach of the Minnesota men’s gymnastics team and is in the process of bringing about a complete transformation of the Golden Gopher program. In 2007 the Gophers began to make the kind of moves Burns envisioned when he arrived in the Twin Cities. Competing in the toughest gymnastics conference in the nation, the Gophers posted an impressive third place finish at the Big Ten Championships. Two weeks later the squad advanced to the team finals at the NCAA Championships, where it recorded a sixth-place finish. It was the first time Minnesota had advanced to the team finals at the NCAA meet since 1990, as the claimed All-America citations. These types of results are nothing new for Burns, who was named 2007 Big Ten Coach of the Year and over the summer was selected as the 2007 USA Gymnastics Men’s Coach of the Year. In 2005, his first year as the Gopher’s head coach, Burns coached Guillermo Alvarez to the Nissen-Emery Award, which is given to the nation’s top senior gymnast. It was only the third time a Gopher gymnast had earned the prestigious award and the first time it had happened since 1993. Under Burns, Alvarez also was the vault champion at the Big Ten Championships and won the floor exercise at the 2005 U.S. National Championships. A native of Norwood, Mass., Burns came to Minnesota from Michigan, where he served as an assistant men’s coach from 1997-2004. Burns received the National Assistant Coach of the Year award in 1999, while helping lead Michigan to the 1999 NCAA Championship. He earned the same honor in 2000, after leading the Wolverines to the second of two-consecutive Big Ten team titles. During his tenure at Michigan, he coached five national champions, 37 All-Americans, and 14 Big Ten champions. Burns is a 1981 graduate of Penn State.
UP NEXT: Minnesota hosts its first home meet of the season on Saturday, Jan. 26, when the Gophers take on the University of Calgary at the Sports Pavilion at 1 p.m.
Players Mentioned
