University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Look to Rebound in Chicago
2/25/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Gymnastics
THIS WEEK: The sixth-ranked University of Minnesota men’s gymnastics team will travel to Chicago, Ill. for a dual with the UIC Flames Saturday. The Gophers will be looking to rebound from a disappointing finish at last week’s Pacific Coast Classic. This will be Minnesota’s second trip to the UIC campus, after opening the season there with the Windy City Classic.
THE OPPONENT: UIC is ranked No. 13 in the latest GymInfo ranking. The Flames were fifth at the Windy City Classic and Minnesota finished third in the other head-to-head meeting of the season. UIC is coming off a loss at Ohio State last week. The Flames will be hosting this dual meet concurrently with a women’s meet between UIC and Illinois State.
GOPHER POLL: Minnesota slipped to No. 6 in the NCAA/GymInfo rankings this week. The Gophers were ranked No. 5 for two separate weeks earlier this season. Those two No. 5 rankings matched the highest Minnesota has ever climbed in the five-year tenure of head coach Mike Burns.
HORSING AROUND: The Gophers have moved up to No. 5 in the nation on the pommel horse. Minnesota’s season average of 56.383 is slightly higher than last week’s score of 56.250. But the average pommel horse as the Gophers’ best event nationally. Minnesota ranks among the nation’s top six in four of the six NCAA Men’s Gymnastics events.
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS: The 2009 NCAA Championships will be held on campus at the University of Minnesota. The 2009 national title will be decided at the Sports Pavilion April 16-18. Tickets are available at www.GopherSports.com or by calling 1.800.UGOPHER.
IT’S A RING THING: Minnesota struggled on the still rings for much of the season. The Gophers average still ring score is ranks No. 9 in the nation, lowest among the six events. But Minnesota may be turning things around on the apparatus. The Gophers have turned in back-to-back season-high scores on the rings in the past two weeks. Freshman Russell Dabritz (Rowley, Mass.) turned in a season-high score of 14.750 last week at the Pacific Coast Classic. Junior Thomas O’Brien (Westfield, N.J.) was right on his heels with a 14.700 last week.
HIT AND MISS: The Minnesota coaching staff keeps track of routines hit and missed for each meet. It is no surprise with last week’s score that the Gophers missed on a season-high number of routines. Their “hit percentage” was just 67.6 percent. Minnesota’s season-high “hit percentage” came in its home quad meet with Calgary, Washington and Arizona State. The Gophers hit 83 percent of their routines in that meet.
STICK AND MOVE: While Minnesota had trouble hitting their routines last week in California, they did a good job hitting their dismounts. The Gopher coaching staff also keeps track of “sticks” on dismounts. Last week, Minnesota had a season-high “stick percentage” of 23.5 percent. The Gophers stuck eight dismounts , topping their previous season-high of six.
BURNS BITES: Quotes from Gopher head coach Mike Burns:
On the Pacific Coast Classic:
“It was a difficult night in Oakland. We did have some very good routines. But we we struggled with consistency throughout the night. We were able to put up four decent scores on each event, but we had trouble maintaining a level of momentum that we needed to push us up into the 350 range.”
On the UIC Dual This Week:
“We will be looking to get back on track with a higher hit percentage this weekend after coming off our lowest hit percentage meet of the year last week at the Pacific Coast Classic. We have been really focusing on the necessary adjustments to make that a reality this weekend against Illinois-Chicago. This will be our first co-ed meet of the season. That’s something I’d really like to see us do here at Minnesota.”
Players Mentioned
