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'M' women hope to ride hot streak past Penn State in season finale

The college gymnastics calendar is similar to the NHL's: You want to win during the long regular season, but your main objective is peaking for the playoffs.

The Michigan women's gymnastics team will have to wait a week for the postseason to begin, because there is one more regular season meet this Saturday at Penn State.

But apparently they couldn't wait that long to begin peaking.

Last Saturday, Michigan scorched No. 6 Brigham Young by a score of 197.000-194.350. That point total was not only a season-high, but the second best in school history.

The No. 5 Wolverines set school records with their team scores on the uneven bars (49.375) and on the floor exercise (49.475). They slipped up a little in the vault, as their season high score (49.550) was "only" good enough for a third place tie in the Michigan record book.

Michigan gymnasts posted fourteen personal-best scores, highlighted by senior Wendy Marshall's first career perfect 10 on the floor exercise, the final event in her last home meet.

"I cannot say enough about Wendy's performances and her contributions to this team," Michigan coach Bev Plocki said. "I knew once she nailed that last double-back, they were to give (the 10.0) to her."

Two meets ago, Michigan scored 196.425 points in a narrow loss to Georgia, the top-ranked team in the nation.

Those two meets were at home though, and this week with Penn State, as well as the entire postseason, will be spent away from Cliff Keen Arena. So far this year the Wolverines have not scored as high on the road as they have at home.

"It's definitely harder to get scores and compete away from home," Plocki admits. But she blames the lower road scores on injuries. "We didn't compete at full strength as far as health and our lineup throughout the middle part of our season, so our away scores do not reflect the quality of the team that we are."

The Wolverines' effort was good enough to top Penn State when the two teams faced each other earlier this month. Michigan (192.225) placed third and Lady Lions (191.950) were fourth at the six team Shanico Invitational hosted by Oregon State March 1.

The Wolverines are hoping for a strong performance this weekend to keep their momentum going into next week, when they will try for their fifth straight Big Ten title at the conference meet.

Good road scores at Penn State and at the Big Ten meet will also help guarantee a spot in the NCAA central regional on April 14.

Teams qualify for regionals based on their composite score. It is calculated using a team's two highest home scores, two highest road scores and the next two highest scores of either variety. The highest and lowest of the six are dropped, and the composite score is the average of the remaining four.

The top seven teams in the region will be invited to compete, and the Wolverines' composite score currently ranks second in the central region.

They have not yet clinched a spot, but it is very unlikely that six teams will pass them.

So while Penn State is the opponent for the regular season finale this weekend, Michigan may be looking ahead a little bit, preparing for their second season.

Are they peaking for the postseason too early? Or is it possible for the Wolverines to improve upon their recent stellar scores?

"I definitely think that there is still room for improvement in our performances," Plocki said. "I think that we are definitely a 197, and maybe a 197-plus-a-little-bit team."

If so, the rest of the year should be fun for Michigan.