After opening its 2015 season with a 194.775-194.075 win, the now 14th ranked BG gymnastics team travels to Knoxville, Tennessee, this Saturday to compete in the Ozone College Classic against Alaska Anchorage, Brigham Young and
Wisconsin-Whitewater.
The Falcons’ current ranking is their second best ranking in program history and their first placement inside the GymInfo Top 20 since January 21, 2002.
Head Coach Kerri Turner was pleased with the team’s overall performance in its
opening meet.
“It was a total team performance,” Turner said. “Gymnastics is an interesting sport because it’s individuals competing; however, you’re building a team score. It took everybody. It wasn’t one or two people who made that win happen, it took the entire team. This team is really special and the way they’ve come together as a unit is why we’ve been
so successful.”
Despite recent accomplishments of the team, head coach Kerri Turner is poised to mentally and physically prepare the team for this weekend’s competition.
“A lot of people have been congratulating me and the team this week,” Turner said. “However, about five minutes after the meet against Michigan State, I was already focused on this trip to Tennessee and what our team needed to do to be successful. Yes, it is great that we have gotten off to a great start, but my team understands that dwelling on our successes isn’t going to get us to the MAC Championship or the NCAA regionals. We have to be focused week in and
week out.”
Coach Turner credits her seniors, Amanda Lievendag, Jamilah Ali, Gina Locigno and Alexandria Porter, for keeping the team humbled.
“I wasn’t quite sure what to expect going into this year,” Turner said, “However, I’ve been really impressed with the way they’ve been leading the team; they know what they are capable of. They don’t want to just have potential, they want to meet potential and go beyond it.”
Lievendag says the team has received a massive amount of praise and public support this week, but that hasn’t distracted her or her teammates from their ultimate goal: winning the MAC Championship.
“This is the first time we have been ranked this high, so we are just trying to kind of ignore it,” Lievendag said. “We try to go into every meet with a blank slate and clear vision of how we want to perform. We try not to worry about the rankings, or what everybody says.”
Despite the win to open the season, the Falcons remain focused and are motivated to keep improving as the season
progresses.
“We share a strong bond with one another,” sophomore and 2014 MAC Freshman of the Year Lauren Feely said. “We all have the same focus, drive, and goals. With each competition, we learn from it, we put it behind us and move on. We are a mentally tough team.”
