Sections

Tumblers host Michigan Invite

Ordinarily, home meets are an opportunity for the home team to dominate the competition and to show off in front of friends and family.

Someone should have informed the schedule makers of this concept before the schools were selected for the men's gymnastics Michigan Invitational this Saturday 7 p.m. at Cliff Keen Arena.

"All the teams we're bringing in are all nationally ranked teams," Michigan coach Bob Darden said. "They're very good squads."

It certainly is going to be difficult for the host Wolverines to break into the win column. The guests include No. 7 Illinois-Chicago, No. 5 Illinois and No. 3 Michigan State. Michigan (0-8) is ranked the lowest in the meet at 24th.

"We have teams that are scoring in the 220s," Darden added. "We are still waiting to put in a good concerted effort around 209 (points)."

The Wolverines' season high was in February at Illinois-Chicago, where they scored a 210.2. They are most recently coming off of a subpar 206.7. It was the team's lowest total since January's 197.55 finish at the Windy City Open in Chicago.

However, the coaching staff hopes their hard work can come through in the numbers before the home crowd.

"We're seeing really good results from training," Darden said. "We're having a tough time, as coaches, taking that same level of consistency ... down on to the competition floor. It seems like that is just the ongoing chore for the coaching staff (all season)."

All the schools competing have strong programs, especially the two highest-ranked Big Ten rivals, Illinois and Michigan State.

The Fighting Illini are scoring at a season average of 221.36 points. They scored a season high 227.375 earlier this month and should be a tough team to beat.

The Wolverines have seen the Spartans quite often. Michigan State has a strong team from top to bottom, led by Joe Duda and Ethan Sterk.

Duda holds three Spartan records, including a 9.85 in the parallel bars which he scored in February. Sterk's season-high performance was on the high bar with a 9.75. Both are impressive in the all-around.

The other schools have strong programs as well. The most notable is No. 14 Brigham Young. The Cougars boast Darren Elg, who holds four school records including the all-around (57.95), floor (9.95), horse (9.95) and high bar (10).

The invite happens at the tail end of this gymnastics season. The Wolverines are mindful of this, and they hope to have a strong showing to close out the regular season.