Christmas in February
New Haven, CT 2/5/00 .......
The gifts came very early this year. There must be something about the gym at Yale University that makes the judges feel extremely generous, but it never fails that when our team travels there, routines are judged 2-3 tenths higher than anywhere else. How else could you explain the fact that MIT scored 175.725 with 6 falls on beam? Equally as astonishing is that the host institution scored a 190.45 and the University of Bridgeport finished second with a 188.075. At Yale, the scores are traditionaly and consistantly 2-4 points per team higher than they should be. For our team, the Yale meet usually marks the half-way point in our season and whether we deserve the scores or not, it usually gives our athletes a sense that they can score that well and it becomes a catapoult for the second half of the season.
We don't want to take anything away from the athletes even though the judges were kind. Yale has a much stronger team than the past couple of years and they are doing some wonderful routines on bars and beam. Bridgeport has also increased their skill level and consistency since we saw them last month on the first meet of the season. As for our team, this meet marked the unveiling of many a new skill and revamped routine.
The tri-meet began with Yale on vault and MIT on bars. Including our exhibition routine, 5 out of the 7 competitors on bars added new skills to their routines. Tanya Burka '03 led off dismounting a toe-front which helped her raise her score to a 7.7 Stephanie Cheng '00, was one of the athletes that did not have a change in her routine (but she will soon). Karla Maguire '01 dismounted with a full for the first time ever and stood it up great for an 8.15. Amy Shui '02 totally changed her routine around solidifying her requirements and scoring a season high 8.75 First year student Carrie Garceau followed also with a new ending to her routine, but did not compete it successfuly and settled for a 7.9, and the Yale bars ended up taking a bite out of our best bars worker in Sonja Ellefson '01 who slipped and fell and managed an 8.85 on the event. As a team, we scored a 41.35, by far the highest bars total of the season.
During the following bye rotation, we got to see the Yale team swing some very impressive bar routines. A couple of their athletes just missed their release moves, but overall, the team looked very good on that event. Moving to vault, our team was also premiering two new vaults at this meet. Liz Ellingson '01 vaulted a handspring full for the first time in competition, and first year student Lindsey Wolf threw a vault that she has been working hard on and just learned this year, a handspring front tuck. Liz did a nice job with her vault, touching down on the landing though and scoring an 8.25. Lindsey surprised all by landing higher than expected and receiving a 9.1 for her effort. The rest of the vaulting line-up stuck their vaults and helped the team to a respectable 44.475 total for the event.
MIT then had another bye rotation before moving to floor. On floor, the team did very well thanks to the fact that they had all been working very hard on their endurance since their last meet. The improvement showed and the team posted a 46.30 team total. And then the team moved to beam. The only thing to say about beam, is that we still need a lot of work on that event. It will be great to have a home meet after a month on the road, as we host the University of Vermont and these very same Yale University bulldogs this Saturday February 12th. It will be interesting to see what kind of scores the teams total at MIT as opposed to at Yale. The men will also be competing at the same time, so it will be an extra special meet to come out and watch. Hope to see you there.