On any given day....

Cambridge, MA 3/11/00.......

On any given day anything can happen, and on this icy, rainy day in March, it did. MIT hosted the NCGA East Regional/ECAC Championship in front of about 600 spectators in Rockwell Cage. Unlike last year's championships in which every team seemed to have a terrific meet, this day was marred by fall after fall from every apparatus. In the end, the team that was left standing was Ithaca College, but even they struggled, having to count some falls on beam. The team that seemed to have the cleanest meet came from nearby Rhode Island College, and they managed to lay claim to the all-around title with an exciting newcomer named Sajdah Amhad (36.90). The team results were as follows:

Springfield College came into the meet ranked number 1 in the country in Division III and clearly the team to beat as their ranking score was a full point and a half better than second place Ithaca College. But, to paraphrase the ESPN football crew, this is why the championships are held. Ithaca drew the number one spot for the meet meaning that they would begin on vault and compete Olympic order (vault, bars, beam, floor). Springfield drew the 8th spot, beginning the meet on floor in the second rotation. The meet was run Capitol Cup format with flight A consisting of Ithaca, Wilson College, Ursinus College and SUNY-Cortland, and flight B made up of Rhode Island College, SUNY-Brockport, MIT and Springfield College. The flights would rotate from one gym to another warming up one event during one rotation, and then going to the competition gym to compete that event. For the third year in a row, MIT began these championships on beam.

Ithaca began the meet strong on vault with a 36.50 event total counting the team's top four scores and led by second place finisher Stacey Coleman with a 9.375. The other top two contenders for the team title were also in this rotation. Ursinus College had beaten Ithaca twice during the regular season, and the Cortland team was healthier than they have been all year and hoping to move up from their fourth place ranking. Ursinus began the meet on beam with a few nervous wobbles and falls, but also a 9.45 performance from defending beam champion Christina Ng, who managed to hold on to her crown. Their 35.85 event total was the highest beam total of any team. In the meantime, Cortland was posting a 36.025 total on floor led by senior Susan Linn's 9.325 who would eventually take home the bronze medal on this event. In the second rotation, Springfield struggled a bit with their first event but still posted a 36.65 event total on floor. MIT could not shake the pre-meet jitters and had to count three falls on beam. The best routine in the line-up came from senior Robin Chiu who opened the meet with a 7.75. Defending all-around champion, Sonja Ellefson '01 fell on her handspring-layout series and wobbled her way to an 8.4 putting herself in a deep hole in an attempt to repeat in the all-around. Meanwhile, on vault, Sajdah Ahmad from Rhode Island College put on a show of speed and power on her front handspring front tuck vault that took home the gold with a 9.55.

As the meet went on, many of the gymnasts began to fall. Cortland's senior Sulekha Modi, took herself out of the running of making it an unprecedented 4th uneven bar title by falling from the event. It was a sophmore from Ithaca, Jocelyn Genoa, who took advantage of Sulekha's silp to claim the bars title with a 9.6. Last year's floor exercise champion, Sara Trindad '02 of Springfield, only managed an 8.55, and the crown this year went to Ithaca junior Erin Kahler with a 9.50. After falling on beam, MIT's Sonja Ellefson put on a charge for the all-around crown with a third place finish on vault (9.35) and second place finishes on bars (9.575) and floor (9.45), but in the end, she had to settle for a third bridesmaid finish and a silver in the all-around with a 36.775.

The Springfield team struggled mightily with their second and third events (vault and bars) and then just fell apart on beam where only two of their gymnasts managed to stay on the equipment. Ithaca rocked bars on the third rotation posting a 36.60 total, but also struggeld on beam. They finished the day with a meet high 37.20 total on floor. In the meantime, a young and talented team from Ursinus College self-destructed. Last year's second place finisher in the all-around, Christina Ng '02, overrotated her double-full and fell right off the floor. Newcomer Reyna Hochstedler hurt her ankle on her first pass and could not finish her routine, taking herself out of the vault event where she was one of the favorites coming in. Her replacement, Jumaah Johnson hurt herself on vault, making her miss the bars event were she was coming in ranked in third place. The team from Cortland did not fair much better. After a good 36.25 set on vault, they began to slip with a 35.50 total on bars and then crashed with a 34.40 event total on beam.

The two teams that seemed to have the most fun and do well were Rhode Island College and Wilson College (PA). Adding to Amhad's first place finish, Rhode Island also found two other top ten finishers in the all-around with sophomore Elise Arruda (35.25) tying for 7th and first year student Kristen Oliver (35.225) coming in 9th. Wilson was all smiles as their top all-arounder Terra Sowinski '02 finished 5th with a 35.475 qualifying her to move on to the NCGA National Championships. Terra also finished second on beam with a 9.3. Last year's vault qualifier to Nationals was from Wilson, and this year, Nikki Dustman '01 is once again the top individual qualifier as she posted a 9.2 to finish 6th. The bright spot for MIT was that two of their athletes qualified to Nationals for the first time as junior Liz Ellingson (floor) and sophomore Amy Shui (bars) will join Sonja Ellefson in traveling to Springfield College in two weeks.

All in all, it was a very well run meet but a little bit on the sloppy side from the actual competition. The top four teams from this meet will move on to the National Championships in two weeks. Last year, these four teams went into the Nationals ranked 1-4 and finished 5-8 with the four teams from the west region claiming the top four spots. This year the East has 4 out of the top 5 rankings, but the teams will need to do a much better job of competing if one of the teams hopes to lay claim to the National crown. But, anything can happen on any given day, so we'll see how it all pans out in two weeks.

FINAL STANDINGS