The N.C. State gymnastics team will go into the 2011 season with a newfound confidence, having earned three first-place votes to be named preseason favorite in the East Atlantic Gymnastics League poll. The Pack will meet No. 4 Oklahoma Friday at Reynolds Coliseum. Coach Mark Stevenson, a four-time NCAA Southeast Region coach of the year, will be looking for his team to focus on its own performance.
“It is not about the other team, it’s only about our routine and what we do,” Stevenson said. “If we start thinking about other teams and their rankings it takes you away from your focus and that is not what our goal is.”
With the 2010 season ending with a disappointing sixth place finish in the NCAA Regional Championships at West Virginia, the Pack looks to its strong freshman class to have an immediate impact in 2011. The newcomers will face the daunting task of replacing 2010 All-American Taylor Seaman. Nevertheless, Stevenson is confident the rookies will perform.
“We graduated two kids and brought in seven,” said Stevenson. “Taylor [Seaman] and Lauren [Deuser] will be hard to replace, but I think we’ll get strong performances from our newcomers. We’ve consistently shown that we’re competing for the [EAGL] tournament title every year.”
Freshman Emily Anderson aims to take what she learned from a tough preseason into competition on Friday, and credited the deep freshman class for aiding her to adjust to NCAA gymnastics.
“It’s a lot better to have more girls in my class, and it’s nice to have teammates doing the same thing,” Anderson said. “The older girls have also been awesome helping us as freshman, learning how to do different things and adjust from club gymnastics to college.”
Anderson, who finished 25th all-around at the 2010 Level 10 Nationals, said she hopes to use the experience from the Beauty and the Beast meet in Reynolds Coliseum last Friday to improve heading into the season. With the team having to adjust to the harder landings at Reynolds Coliseum, the event was seen as a dress rehearsal for the 2011 season.
“The Beauty and the Beast meet gets us into the arena, which is our competition facility,” said Stevenson. “It’s a different shocking system to the body and they just need the opportunity to get used to it, which is particularly important for the freshmen.”
The Pack will also look to use the number one rank in the EAGL conference to promote self–confidence, and Anderson is assured that the high ranking will not add pressure to the team’s performances.
“I don’t think it’s put pressure on us. I think, if anything, it’s made us be self-confident and even made us want to do better,” Anderson said. “I don’t think we are nervous and from out practice meet on Friday we know we can do better.”
Returning assistant coach Colleen Johnson will be looking for improvements on Friday against Oklahoma. Following the Beauty and the Beast meet, Johnson cited nerves for mistakes in the team’s performance.
“We have some room to improve, we had some misses probably caused by nerves. Fortunately it was tonight, and not against Oklahoma next weekend,” Johnson said. “On a positive note, we had some really good routines. Brittany Vontz’s vault has come a long way, Jess Panza did a beautiful floor routine and beam routine, and Rachel Fincham did a gorgeous bar routine.”
The Pack, who was runner up in the 2010 EAGL conference, will look to go one better in 2011. However, much of their success will depend on a good start to the season, and a victory over the Sooners this Friday will instill even more confidence, as well as the realistic prospect of getting to the 2011 NCAA National Championships to be held April 14-16, in Cleveland, Ohio.
