Coming off an East Atlantic Gymnastics League championship, the gymnastics team is expecting a similar success story this season.

“This is the best team we’ve ever had,” coach Mark Stevenson said. “Skill-for-skill and athlete-to-athlete, we have almost 10 kids on every event.”

This year the team’s depth may very well be its strongest aspect, as they mix experience with youth.

“This year we’ve got some older kids that are really talented and have done a great job for us in the past,” Stevenson said. “We also have some younger kids that we’re going to move into the lineup to see how they perform and find out if they are the same type of competitors as our seniors are.”

Going into the season, the gymnastics team is ranked 25th in the nation.

“One of our goals is to finish in the top-18 nationally,” Stevenson said. “Another is to win the EAGL championship.”

The EAGL is the sports conference in which the Wolfpack participates. It consists of eight universities, including ACC rivals UNC and Maryland.

“If we want to repeat as EAGL champions, we need a lot of focus on our part and a lot of training to get the nerves out,” senior Heather Zolton said. “We also need to work on our landings.”

Last season, several players missed some of the team’s early meets due to injury.

“Injury was a pretty big factor last year,” senior Leigha Hancock said. “It helps with the team unity if you have everybody because you know what to expect and don’t have to worry about lineup changes.”

State takes on No. 12 Arizona today at 7:30 p.m. in Tucson, Ariz. They follow today’s meet with a contest at No. 20 Ohio State on Jan. 26.

“We definitely have a strong schedule, and a lot of us like it because it makes us try that much harder,” Zolton said. “We want to raise our scores and beat these teams.”