00-01 UPDATES
Ellefson wins Uneven Bars Title at ECAC Championships, places 2nd in the All-Around
Check out the new athlete's Profiles
Complete MIT Scores
Check out the NCGA Current Rankings
2000 - 2001 Competitions (2-10)
ECAC Championships at Ithaca 3/10/01
Springfield College 3/2/01
Rhode Island College 2/24/01
at University of Massachusetts 2/17/01
at University of Vermont 2/11/01
at University of Bridgeport 2/3/01
at the Sarah Wilson Invitational 1/27/01
Brown University 1/23/01
at Southern Connecticut 1/21/01
MIT accepts 5 early action candidates Go!
Please note a schedule change. Springfield College meet has been moved from Saturday 3/3 at 2:00 pm to Friday night 3/2 at 7:30 pm
Team slowly on the mend (injury update 1/1/01)
2000-01 campaign off to a rough start
99-00 Season Wrap-Up
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Sonja Ellefson - MIT's most decorated gymnast
Sonja Ellefson captured second place on uneven bars and fourth place in the vault at the National Collegiate Gymnastics Association Championships to bring her all-america honor awards to a total of 8 for her career. Besides owning every possible school record to date and placing all-conference in 16 out of a possible 20 events, she was also awarded the Outstanding Senior Athlete by the NCGA coaches. This award represents the highest recognition given nationally to a Division III gymnast. Sonja joins four other MIT Outstanding Seniors: Lisa Hammer (Arel) '92, Julie Lyren '93, Sheila Rocchio '97 and Alli Christenson '98. Sonja Ellefson, a senior from Edina, MN captured the Uneven Bars title at the ECAC Championships held on March 10th at Ithaca College. Her score of 9.45 helped her to a 37.00 total and a second place finish in the all-around. This title marks the fourth different event that Sonja has won at the Conference Championships during her illustrious career. Click here for meet story.Five Early Action Candidates Accepted
Nine recruits applied Early Action to MIT and five of them were accepted, already marking the strongest group of recruits ever to get accepted to MIT. Three of the applicants were deferred to Regular Action where four other candidates have also joined the pool. One of the Early Action recruits has already committed to attending MIT in the fall of 2001. The remaining four Early Action recruits will have until May 1st to decide on whether they will attend MIT in the fall. Regular Action decisions will be sent out in the middle of March.Deb Dryer continues to recover from reconstructive knee surgery. She has been able to do basic beam without major jumps or acro and a bar routine without a dismount. Deb is also been able to start working on dance elements on her new floor routine. With any luck she should be able to compete bars and beam initially with the hopes of getting some tumbling back and competing floor towards the end of the season.
Liz Ellingson had her cast removed in mid-November and is currently working on getting some range of motion back in her ankle. It will take some good fortune for Liz to be ready to compete on beam by season's end.
Sonja Ellefson's shoulder is still in a lot of pain. She will require surgery at the end of the season and will be on medication until then to ease the pain. Even on the medication, Sonja is only able to swing bars about twice per week, and tumble on the days that she doesn't swing. She has only been able to vault once this entire first semester.
The team is currently on break and due back at the end of this week. The time off should have done everyone some good and we hope to be able to continue to make positive steps as the season opener is right around the corner.
Last year's injury pleagued season seems to have carried over through the summer and into the beginning of this school year. Lindsey Wolf, MIT's only 'healthy' freshman last year, tore her ACL over the summer in a non-gymnastics related accident. Another healthy gymnast from last year, Liz Ellingson, was involved in a car accident in which she was struck by a state police cruiser while she was crossing the street on her bicycle. Luckily for Liz it could have been much worse, but she did suffer a broken ankle that will sideline her for most of the fall. Cailtin Dwyer-McNally had surgery on her shoulder that was bothering her last year, but managed to break her foot during the summer which will require some time to heal. On the mend are Sonja Ellefson, Deb Dryer and Carrie Garceau, who are all coming back from injuries that have set them back many months in the gym.
A large freshman class joined the MIT program last year and there was reason to be optimistic about the season. As the pre-season unfolded, it was clear that this was going to be a rough year for MIT gymnastics. After 5 full years of no injuries in the gym, it seemed that we were due as one by one the gymnasts started to fall. Carrie Garceau was going to be one of those high impact freshman, but early in November she suffered a nasty sprain in her ankle that subsequently turned into tendonitis in her foot. This injury sidelined her for the rest of the year, only being able to particpate on bars without the ability to dismount.
Deb Dryer was a very pleasant surprise who was poised to challenge for the top spot in the all-around. On her first event of her first collegiate meet, she tore the ACL on her right knee. Tanya Burka suffered with hyper-extended knees not once but twice which prevented her from training and competing to her full potential. Caitlin Dwyer-McNally arrived at MIT with a bad shoulder which just got worse throughout the year. She also suffered a bad fall which sidelined her for a couple of weeks with a sprained neck. About the only healthy freshman was Lindsey Wolf who improved tremendously over the year to the point where she almost qualified to the National meet on vault with a first year handspring front tuck.
The sophomore class was relatively healthy throughout the year and saw outstanding performances from Amy Shui and Cecile LeCocq. Cecile kept improving on her spectacular floor routine and Amy continued to be the most consistent all-around gymnast in the gym. Karla Maguire, now as a junior, became a factor with her improved bar routine and a brand new full twisting dismount. Junior Liz Ellingson had a terrific year consistently being among the top scorers on beam and floor. Her consistency and leadership won her the MVP award as voted on by her teammates and she also earned a qualification to the National meet on floor for the first time. School record holder, Sonja Ellefson had an up and down year mainly due to a shoulder injury that she suffered in December. The highlight of her year was finishing second on bars at the National meet, but unfortunately, her shoulder prevented her from achieving more.
Our two seniors were a true tribute to what the MIT gymnastics program has been and what it stands for. Their leadership kept the team together through the injuries and managed to still have a great time even faced with the challenges. As a team, the highlight of the entire season was the opportunity to travel to Bermuda, and we made the most of that experience
Even with the injuries it was still a step in the right direction for the MIT program. Hopefully, with everyone healthy, the team will be able to showcase this freshman class and have more of an impact on Division III gymnastics in years to come.