University of Minnesota Athletics
Women's Gymnastics Team Announces Team Awards at Banquet
5/4/2008 12:00:00 AM | Gymnastics
Carabajal earned Team MVP honors for the second time in her career after also being named the 2007 MVP. A two-time All-Big Ten honoree, she tallied the team’s top scores of the season on bars, beam, floor and the all around, and led the team in average scoring on every event. Carabajal finished fourth in the all around at the Big Ten Championship. With her all around performance at the NCAA Regional Championship, she earned a trip to the NCAA Championship, where she finished 14th in the all around. She competed in the all around at every competition in the 2008 season, and hit 55 of the 56 routines she performed in team competitions.
The Mariam Award, named for former Gopher gymnast Marian Pourshoushtari, is given annually to the gymnast who does everything possible to be the best gymnast and person she can be. This year’s award recipient is senior Amanda Miles, who also won the award in 2007. She served as a two-year team captain and was a team leader on both balance beam and floor exercise in the 2008 season. Miles also achieved academically, earning Academic All-Big Ten honors three times as a psychology major.
Alexis Russell was named the team’s Most Improved Gymnast. Russell suffered a knee injury early in the season, but fought back to compete in the all around in the latter part of the season. She was a top performer for the Gophers on vault, earning the team’s best score of the season with a 9.850. At the NCAA Regional Championship, Russell earned her personal best all around score with a 39.175, narrowly missing a trip to the NCAA Championship. Russell was the lead-off performer on bars, beam and floor.
Kendra Elm was named the team’s Freshman of the Year. She was a regular competitor on bars and floor throughout the 2008 season.
Twelve Gopher gymnasts earned letter awards: Ana Balboa, Jade Beattie, Jamie Bullock, Carmelina Carabajal, Kendra Elm, Kristin Furukawa, Amanda Miles, Ashley Mutchler, Yuri Nagai, Alexis Russell, Ashley Stanton, and Angela Walker.
Six members of the women’s gymnastics team earned Academic All-Big Ten Awards in 2008. To be eligible for the award, student-athletes must be in at least her sophomore season, be a letterwinner, and have a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or better. The Academic All-Big Ten award recipients for 2008 are: Jade Beattie, Carmelina Carabajal, Amanda Miles, Ashley Mutchler, Ashley Stanton, and Angela Walker.
Players Mentioned
