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Frosh lead tumblers to 5th straight title

The Michigan women's gymnastics team proved that youth is not necessarily a liability, as four freshmen led the Wolverines to victory at the Big Ten championships.

Fourth-ranked Michigan scored a 194.600 to top all seven teams at the conference meet in Columbus on Saturday. The victory marked the fifth consecutive year the Wolverines have been crowned Big Ten champs.

Michigan State scored a 193.925, narrowly edging host Ohio State for second. The Buckeyes finished third with a total of 193.900.

Michigan is only the second team to win five straight conference titles. Ohio State won five in a row from 1983-87.

The Wolverines dominated the top of the scoreboard. A different Michigan gymnast placed first in the all-around and the four individual events. Four of these champions were freshmen.

Freshman Beth Amelkovich captured the all-around title with a score of 39.050, despite not winning an event. Her performance was highlighted by a career-high 9.950 on the uneven bars.

"Not even in my wildest dreams did I think that (winning the all-around) was going to happen," Amelkovich said. "But it wouldn't have meant anything if our team didn't win. The fact that our team won just made everything sweeter."

The winner on the bars was freshman Nikki Peters, who became the first gymnast to ever record a perfect 10 in that event at the Big Ten championship meet.

Her score led the Wolverines to a 49.525 on the bars, breaking the two-week-old school record. Peters and senior Wendy Marshall are the only Wolverines to receive a perfect mark this season.

Marshall, who was named Big Ten gymnast of the year, was the only Michigan upperclassman to win an event. The senior's score of 9.850 made her Big Ten champion on the vault, an event she has dominated throughout most of the season.

"This was the sweetest win I have ever felt," Marshall said. "We won and that is all that matters."

Junior Andrea McDonald, freshman Lisa Simes and Peters each scored 9.825 on the vault. They were part of a four-way tie for second, along with Betsy Cousins of Ohio State.

Simes shared first place in the floor exercise with Mindy Knaeble of Minnesota. They both scored a 9.850.

McDonald and sophomore Heather Kabnick each scored a 9.825 on the floor, leaving them in a tie for third.

Michigan freshman Kathy Burke's career-high 9.850 tied her with Michigan State's Carolyn Hecht for top honors on the balance beam, but Burke was the only Wolverine to perform well on that apparatus. The team score was only 47.100 on the beam.

"We tried to give this one away in the last event," Michigan coach Bev Plocki said. "We were on such an adrenaline high coming off bars and had to go right to the beam. It was a great lesson for us to learn from going into regionals and nationals."

The freshmen have been turning in solid performances all season long, but this weekend marked their best collective efforts yet.

The four have only been in the lineup together since late February. Injuries kept Peters and Simes out of competition, and the fifth freshman, Kristin Duff, has missed virtually the entire season with an injury.

This victory should put to rest any doubts about who is the top team in the conference. But Michigan isn't content with just the Big Ten title.

The Wolverines have two weeks to perfect their routines for the NCAAs. They will be competing April 13 in the Central Regional in Baton Rouge.