University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Ranked No. 8 in Preseason Coaches Poll
10/13/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Gymnastics
The announcement was released Wednesday that they University of Minnesota men's gymnastics team is ranked No. 8 in the 2011 preseason coaches poll.
The rankings were released about three months before the Gophers' regular season gets underway Jan. 15 at the Windy City Invitational.
The Gophers know they will have to show off a lot of new talent once the season gets underway. They lost seven seniors from last season, however they will be boasting a talented group of freshman.
"I think that's a good spot to be in right now considering we have such a big group of freshmen on our team this year," Minnesota head coach Mike Burns said. "We graduated a lot of experienced talent last year and it will be up to the entire team to combine their efforts to push us into the top six and into the team finals at the NCAA's this year."
The Big Ten was overall well represented in the preseason pole with all six schools that field a men's gymnastics program being ranked in the top 10, including Michigan starting out at No. 2 and trying Stanford with seven first-place votes.
"The Big Ten will again be a major battle with four of the six Big Ten teams ranked ahead of us," Burns said. "The Big Ten continues to be the strength of the NCAA program with all 6 teams being ranked in the top 10. It's going to be a very interesting season and with the announcement of Cal-Berkeley dropping [their gymnastics program] at the end of the 2011 season everyone in gymnastics is going to be watching them to see how they fare in their final season as a varsity program."
1. Stanford (7)
2. Michigan (7)
3. Oklahoma (2)
4. Illinois
5. California
6. Ohio State
7. Penn State
8. MINNESOTA
9. Nebraska
10. Iowa
11. Temple
12. UIC
13. Air Force
14. William and Mary
15. Army
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