University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Set To Compete In, Host Nationals
4/14/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Gymnastics
THIS WEEK: The seventh-ranked University of Minnesota men’s gymnastics team will host the National Collegiate Men’s Gymnastics Championships at the Sports Pavilion this week. The championship event begins Thursday and runs through Saturday. The top 12 teams in the nation will compete Thursday, trying to reach Friday night’s finals, which will see the top three teams from each of two Thursday sessions compete. Saturday’s competition will be the individual event finals.
THE OPPONENTS: Minnesota will compete at 7 p.m. Thursday night in the second of two qualifying sessions. The Gophers will compete against No. 2 Oklahoma, No. 3 Illinois, No. 6 Ohio State, No. 10 Illinois-Chicago and No. 11 Iowa for one of three spots in Friday night’s team finals. Thursday’s 1 p.m. session will feature No. 1 Stanford, No. 4 Michigan, No. 5 California, No. 8 Penn State, No. 9 Nebraska and No. 12 Navy.
GOPHER POLL: Minnesota climbed a spot to No. 7 in the NCAA/GymInfo rankings after its performance at the Big Ten Championships. 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 are ranked No. 4 in the nation on the pommel horse. Minnesota is coming off one of its better performances of the season on the horse at the Big Ten Championships. The Gophers put together a 56.650 score, led by Kit Beikmann’s 14.750. Beikmann is tied for a No. 4 ranking in the nation, with an average score of 14.880 on the horse. The senior has broken the 15-point barrier on the horse three times this season.
VAULTING TO THE TOP: The Gophers are currently ranked No. 4 in the nation on the vault, making the vault and pommel horse their two best events. Minnesota is averaging a 62.270 score on the vault, just .04 behind No. 3 Ohio State. A berth in Friday’s team final will likely come down to the Gophers and Buckeyes. With the vault ranking so close between the two teams, it could be a key event in Thursday’s qualifying session.
BEIKMANN NAMED FINALIST FOR AWARD: Minnesota pommel horse specialist Kit Beikmann (Sr., Brighton, Colo.) is a finalist for the Nissen-Emery Award. The “Heisman Trophy of Men’s Gymnastics” will be awarded at a banquet Wednesday prior to the NCAA Championships, which are slated for Thursday-Saturday the Sports Pavilion on the University of Minnesota campus.
YOUTH GONE WILD: Freshman Russell Dabritz (Fr., Rowley, Mass.) is one of the Gophers’ highest-ranked competitors on an individual event. Dabritz is ranked No. 4 on the parallel bars with an average score of 14.870. His average is less than 0.500 away from the top-ranked gymnast on the apparatus.
ALL-BIG TEN GOPHERS: Senior Kit Beikmann and freshman Russell Dabritz both earned second-team All-Big Ten honors at the Big Ten Championships back on April 4 in Ann Arbor, Mich. Beikmann earned the honor with a second-place finish on the pommel horse. Meanwhile, Dabritz finished second on the parallel bars to earn his first-ever All-Big Ten recognition.
ALL-AMERICAN GOPHERS: Four current Minnesota gymnasts have earned All-America honors during their Minnesota careers. These four, along with the rest of their teammates, are hoping to add more All-America accolades to their rsums Saturday during the individual event finals. Cole Storer (Jr., Plano, Texas) is a two-time All-American (2008 High Bar; 2007 Floor Exercise). Adam Reichow was a two-time All-America performer in 2007 (Floor Exercise, Vault). Kit Beikmann (2007 Pommel Horse) and Andre Berry (2007 All-Around) are the other two Gophers with All-America credentials.
COACH BURNS: Mike Burns is in his fifth season as head coach of the Minnesota men’s gymnastics team. 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. The Gophers narrowly missed the team finals last season, but have their designs set on a team finals appearance in their home gym in 2009. Burns was named 2007 Big Ten Coach of the Year and was also 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. Burns is currently serving as the President of the Collegiate Gymnastics Association. 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.
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