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Gophers golden in upset of women gymnasts

The Minnesota women's gymnastics team has just accomplished a feat that no other Big Ten team has been able to do for almost three years.

Saturday night at the Sports Pavilion in Minneapolis, the Golden Gophers defeated Michigan.

The Wolverines haven't lost to a Big Ten foe since they were beaten by Michigan State at the State of Michigan Classic on Feb. 7, 1993. Their streak of 32 consecutive dual meet victories also ended.

"What happened was that we breezed through the first meet and we got complacent," Michigan coach Bev Plocki said after the 191.25-190.325 Gopher win. "Hopefully we learned a lesson."

For the Wolverines, losing the meet was not as painful as the loss of one of their top performers. Freshman Nikki Peters could not finish her routine after being hampered by leg trouble.

As a result of Peters' injury and her performance in the event, Michigan was forced to drop her low score and use senior co-captain Dianna Ranelli's score of 9.275 as the fifth score in the event.

Michigan's results on the floor were reflective of how the gymnasts felt.

"Ranelli had some stomach problems and missed her first pass," Plocki said. "Heather Kabnick landed short on her first and second passes and could barely finish her routine."

For Michigan, the cloud that lingered over Minneapolis had a little silver lining -- the Wolverines scored a Sports Pavilion-record on the vault with 49.025 points.

Michigan's domination on the apparatus was not even contested by Minnesota as the Wolverines swept the first five places and outscored their opponent by almost two points.

Peters emerged victorious in the event with a score of 9.90, while senior co-captain Wendy Marshall finished third (9.875) and Kabnick finished the sweep (9.80).

With its success on the vault, Michigan was looking to get back on track after a dismal start on the uneven bars.

"Only two girls did well on the bars and four fell," Plocki said. "I thought that we got on track on the vault."

This was not the case as Kabnick and Ranelli fell on the floor and lost Peters was lost to injury.

Minnesota, however, would not allow this meet to be another "business-as-usual" day for Michigan.

Minnesota had a gymnast place first in the other three events.

Mindy Knaeble led the Gophers, winning the all-around (38.90) and floor (9.850).

Other individual winners for Minnesota were Susan Castner on the balance beam (9.80) and Kristin Vandersall on the uneven bars (9.825).

Marshall led the Wolverines, placing second in the all-around (38.90) and in the vault (9.875).

Marshall was followed by junior Andrea McDonald, who placed third in the all-around (38.350), bars (9.825) and floor (9.850).

Despite a loss at the hands of a Big Ten team, sophomore Lauren LaBranche doesn't feel that the team is headed in the wrong direction.