Let's tuck and roll

Women are top seed in NCAA Regional

Of all the words to describe the regular season of the 1999 Michigan women's gymnastics team, one that most certainly does not come to mind is 'lucky.'

Everything from one of the nation's most difficult schedules to fallen gymnasts at the hands of injury have hampered any attempt luck might have had in contributing to the success of this team.

So why should the post-season be any different?

This Saturday, the Wolverines will be headed to Lincoln Nebraska as the No. 1 seed to compete in the NCAA Regional Championships.

DANA LINNANE/Daily Karina Senior and the Michigan gymnasts will try to extend their streak of advancing to the NCAA championships, when they compete in the NCAA regionals this weekend.

Their seeding is not the problem.

Ranked No. 4 nationally, Michigan is most definitely favored to finish in at least one of the top two spots and be awarded an opportunity to travel to Salt Lake City later this month to vie for the national championship.

Nor is their competition - No. 7 Nebraska, No. 22 Oklahoma, No. 25 Arizona, Illinois and Illinois-Chicago - looked at as a potential problem.

Something that might be, though, is the order which Michigan randomly drew for event competition. The Wolverines will begin their post-season on the balance beam.

"It's not an ideal draw for us," said Michigan coach Bev Plocki. "We would have liked to have Olympic order."

Olympic order begins with vault.

On vault, there's room for error - only the top score of two attempts of each gymnast is registered.

On beam, there's less room for error - just six inches of it.

The entire idea of trying to balance the emotion of competing in the University of Nebraska's 14,000 seat Bob Devaney Sports Center and being the No. 1 seed, gives the balance beam a fitting name.

Last season's regional championships brought the same type of luck for the Wolverines. In Tuscaloosa, Alabama they started on vault and overcame it, going on to finish second behind the Crimson Tide. But that was where their luck ran out.

Michigan's trip to Los Angeles for last year's national championships was not so eventful. Its score during preliminary competition kept Michigan out of the "Super 6" for the first time since 1993.

"I felt like we had a team that had opportunity in the post-season last year," Plocki said. "We didn't take advantage of that."

This year hopes to be different for the Wolverines. And they have made allowances to make sure this opening stroke of bad luck isn't going to be enough to cripple what up to this point has been an enchanted season.

"We started out practices this week with a beam inter-squad," Plocki said. "We're trying anything to get use to the idea [of opening on the balance beam], mentally as well as physically."

One thing that Michigan will not be doing differently come Saturday is altering any of the things that has earned them its lofty post-season ranking.

"Our athletes recognize the fact that they are the most successful when they are relaxed, and have the most fun."

In addition to being relaxed, there are more keys to the Wolverines' attempt at nabbing their first ever, national championship.

"We have been talking a lot that each athlete has to understand that they are in control of their own performance," Plocki said.

This need to address mental preparation was due to early season problems with inconsistency Plocki said. The fact that an individual gymnast would begin to panic when a fellow teammate had a bad performance often translated into further misfortune.

"It was a snowball effect," Plocki said.

Lucky for the Wolverines, the calendar says April, and for the first time all year they will not be competing during the winter season. Maybe this coming of spring will also eliminate any further threat of snowballs.

Tomorrow

Michigan at NCAA Regionals

Where:

Lincoln, Neb.

When: 8 p.m.

The Latest: The top two finishers the regional will advance to the NCAA Championships.

04-09-99