The No. 5 Michigan women's gymnastics team began its season with a disappointing second-place finish behind host, No. 20 West Virginia in Saturday's tri-meet. Towson State also competed, finishing third.
Sophomore Nikki Peters demonstrated a top performance, capturing first place with a score of 39.000 in the all-around competition. It was the first time in her career that she has competed in all four events.
Peters tied for first in the balance beam (9.750) and won the uneven bars (9.850). She was the only Wolverine to place in the top six of the balance beam competition, aiding the Michigan team in its overall second-place finish, as the balance beam and the floor exercise were its two weakest events.
"I was proud of the way Nikki Peters performed," Michigan coach Bev Plocki said. "She accomplished a lot in her first all-around competition as a Wolverine, but I know she has potential to do even better."
Michigan dominated the vault and the uneven bars with a three-way tie for first place in vault (9.900) by Wolverines Beth Amelkovich, Sarah Cain, and Peters.
Peters and Cain took first and second place in the uneven bars respectively (9.850, 9.825).
"Just because I hit the vault and the uneven bars this time, doesn't mean that I will in the future; I still have to continue working on everything," Cain said.
Cain ended up with an impressive sixth-place finish in her first all-around competition (38.200), showing promise for a great career at Michigan.
Despite good performances from individuals, the Wolverines did not get the luck of the draw in the order of their events. They began the competition with the floor exercise, which is their weakest event, and finished on the beam. Michigan was leading West Virginia by .3 points going into the final event.
"Ending on beam is difficult," Plocki said. "It is such a pressure event, and we had two breaks (falls) right at the end."
The Wolverines also had to deal with a few injuries in this competition. Junior Heather Kabnick was not able to perform due to a pulled hamstring, and sophomore Kathy Burke sprained her ankle in the competition's warm-ups.
Senior Andrea McDonald competed with a stress fracture in her back, filling in for Burke, and managed to place 15th (9.375) with a "watered-down" routine in floor exercise.
Twenty-two of the 24 routines were performed by freshmen and sophomores, so inexperience and nerves played a definite role in the Wolverines' performance.
"With such a young team, there is inexperience, and with inexperience comes mistakes," Plocki said. "We were the superior team in the competition, but we just had too many mistakes - mental mistakes."
With the first competition under their belts, the Wolverines are looking forward to a challenging season.
"I am excited because I think that we will be really good," Cain said. "And it also helps to have something to look back on and learn from."
"It's not the performance that we were hoping for, but it made us realize the work that needs to be done," Plocki said.
"I predict a big difference in our second meet against Minnesota this Saturday."