University of Minnesota Athletics
Session III Quotes
4/18/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Gymnastics
On the team’s second place finish:
“We’re very pleased. We went from sixth last year to second this year. We were right in the thick of it until the end and weren’t far away from pulling it off...It’s a lot better than third, but I’d still rather be first.”
On the rise from sixth place to runner-up:
“We worked harder than last year. Of course, we work hard every year, but it all seemed to come together at this meet.”
On the key to the second place performance:
“Just getting off to a good start and maintaining it throughout. I don’t think any one person was a key. I think they all did. That might not be a perfect answer, but it’s the truth. This really was a solid team effort all around.”
Oklahoma Head Coach Mark Williams
“This was a great competition for NCAA gymnastics, there were a lot of great teams out there, and I think my team has it’s best performance. On parallel bars, high bars and floor, I was really happy with our team. We’re a little weak on pommel horse and rings, but then we came back with a strong performance on vault. I can’t really complain about the performance of my team, and I certainly congratulate Stanford for an outstanding championship.”
On overall impressions of the meet:
“I can’t complain, my guys had a great meet. That may have been one of our higher scores for the season. Other teams were just out there rocking as well. We did well on the first three events, pommel horse is always a weaker event for us, rings is what it is, and we finished on great event vaulting. We got ourselves back in it but at that point Stanford had it locked.”
On vault performance:
“We needed that to be a high scoring event. It’s a little demoralizing that we came in after five rotations in last place but vault can swing things pretty dramatically. We kept our attitude up the whole time and guys came out and did a great job on vaulting, it just wasn’t enough at that point.”
On parity in college gymnastics:
“Michigan came out on fire in the beginning. Even Cal had a chance to be up there at the end. It was great though. I think the last rotation was the closest I remember it being in my 10 years at Oklahoma. That’s great parity and it was a wonderful championship. I wish more people could see that kind of competition.”
On Steven Legendre’s development in the Oklahoma program:
“He’s doing a fantastic job. Four or five years ago, he wasn’t even in the junior national picture at all. He moved to a gym in Texas, WOGA, where Nastia Luikin trains. They started putting the pieces together, he had a lot of talent that was hidden. We knew he was powerful in floor and vault, but in time, he started getting better and better on parallel bars, high bar and rings. Even his pommel horse has come a tremendous way in the last couple of years we’ve had him. I’ve said that it’s due to his persistence and his will to prepare for big meets. I think he’s going to be a guy that the U.S. National Team is going to need to have as a part of the process to pick the 2012 Olympic team.”
All around champion Steven Legendre of Oklahoma
“Hats off to both Stanford and Michigan, they both had unbelievable days today, and they deserve everything they got. I’m as proud of my team as I can possibly be. We went out there and did exactly what we set out to do. Today, we weren’t the best team, but that’s how it goes. We’re going to keep our heads up, go home, and work a little harder and hope to come back next year and do a little better.”
“We knew that the way rotations were picked for tonight, that going into the last event we would be at a pretty big deficit in comparison to the other teams. We knew what we were up against, and we gave it everything we had, unfortunately, it wasn’t enough.”
“It’s really great to win the all around. I feel like all my hard work paid off for me. It’s kind of overshadowed right now by not winning the team title, but as I said earlier, tonight, we just weren’t the best team out on the floor.”
On how important it was to win the all around title this year:
“It’s definitely wasn’t my top priority, basically my main goal was to do whatever I needed to do to help my team win a championship. If winning the all around title came along with it, then so be it, but it wasn’t one of my main goals.”
Stanford Head Coach Thom Glielmi
“Obviously I’m pleased, we managed to pull off the championship. The strength of the team is the depth. If you watched the meet you saw some of the guys had some breaks and even some falls. But our top six guys can put together some solid routines and the difficulty is high. They knew that coming in so there was never an issue of feeling like they were out of it. That helps in their confidence and we just kept going and kept plugging until the last guy on the last event.”
“The guys have trained really hard and they’re prepared. Some of our guys had uncharacteristic breaks but that happens, that’s sports. That’s what’s so great about it. You never know what the final result is going to be until that last routine from the last guy on the last team is completed. It’s fun.”
“It can be nerve racking, but hopefully when you get to the championships you’ve prepared your team well and the guys know what to expect and you have fun with it. That’s when we get the best results.”
“Last year was a disappointment (at the championships). We had the top ranked team in the country coming in and we were hosting. The guys felt a lot of pressure. We’d slowly been getting better, going from seventh to sixth to third and so on. But they had never been in the position where they are the team to beat. That’s a whole new experience going in with a target on your head and everyone knowing that if you don’t win, it’s because you screwed up. It was a lesson they had to learn and sometimes teams have to go through that process. It’s painful but it’s very motivational and they used it to springboard from the loss last year and made sure that didn’t happen again.”
Minnesota Head Coach Mike Burns
“Kit (Beikmann) did a great job tonight. He actually did a routine that was a tenth less of a start value than the one he did last night by playing it a little bit safe on the dismount. We were wondering if that was going to cost him a place in the finals. He’s an interesting guy and since he went first, he had to wait through the whole seven rotations to find out where he finished. He was in a five-way tie for third place at first, then fourth place, then each rotation we were seeing if anyone was going to beat him. It was fun to watch the process. We kind of thought he was in, but he wasn’t going to call his parents until his name was announced. He was down almost in a praying position and when his name was called a wash of relief came over him. It’s great because it was the third year in a row he’s made it to the finals and we’re expecting great things out of him.”
“DJ (Repp) has been working that vault all year. Just in the last three to four weeks he’s been finding some consistency. Talk about a gamer, he pulled a great vault when he needed one. I thought he had a great vault last night and then he did one that I thought was even better tonight. They scored it a 15.9 but I think it could have been a 16.0.”
“We would have had one more in the finals with Russell Dabritz on the parallel bars. He had a fantastic set going then he over rotated on his dismount and fell. He scored a 13.9 and that’s after the one point deduction on the fall. If he would have stuck it, it would have put him in the finals easily. I’m kicking myself for not telling him before to not try to be perfect and not try to stick the thing but to just get the landing. It goes back to some consistency problems but at the Big Tens he stuck it and I thought maybe he was getting more comfortable. He had a great routine and as a freshman, it was impressive to see him handle that kind of pressure. It was disappointing but at the same time the rest of the routine was really well done. To see a freshman get out there in a situation like that and do such a good job, I’m really looking forward to a lot of good years ahead of him.”
Players Mentioned
