University of Minnesota Athletics
Gopher Gymnasts Fall to Alumni
1/9/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Gymnastics
The University of Minnesota men’s gymnastics team held its annual Alumni Meet Friday night at the Sports Pavilion. Although the circumstances are generally suspect, the Alumni squad continued its 42-year dominance over the Gopher varsity.
The Alumni scored 356.3 points, out-distancing the Varsity’s tally of 344.0 by 12.3 points. According to Minnesota head coach Mike Burns, who jokingly said he would like to one day experience a win over the Alumni, said it was an “expected loss.”
“As always, the Alumni have a little more fiscal ability to influence the judges,” Burns said, chuckling.
From a serious standpoint, however, Burns saw some things he was pleased with as well as some areas to work on prior to next weekend’s season-opener.
“I really liked the way we finished tonight,” Burns said. “We opened the meet with a rough floor exercise, which is usually a good event for us. But we’ve had trouble finishing strong in the past and I think we really came back and performed well on the parallel bars and the high bars in the last two rotations.
“We also learned a lot about what we need to do before next week,” Burns added. “I think this was the best thing we could have done prior to opening the season season next week at the Windy City Invitational. It will give us a real chance to clean things up before the meet.”
U.S. Senior National Team member Guillermo Alvarez took the top score in each event. He was impressive on nearly every apparatus, despite the generous scoring of the judges. The following is a look at the leader and his score in each event for Varsity squad:
Floor exercise Eddie Campbell, 14.20; Pommel horse Kit Beikmann, 15.40; Still rings Russell Dabritz, 14.80; Vault Colin McGuire/Adam Reichow, 15.60; Parallel bars Russell Dabritz, 13.90; High bar Colin McGuire, 14.70.
Minnesota opens the regular season Jan. 17 at the Windy City Invitational, hosted by the University of Illinois-Chicago.
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