Jan. 5, 2007
Excitement and hope is in the air for the 2007 Maryland gymnastics team as the incoming "super six" freshmen class joins the team. This class has been touted as Maryland's best recruiting effort in the program's history. The 2006 team battled injuries and did not achieve the results they expected, but the entrance of the 2007 freshmen and the start of a new year will bring a spark back to the team. Head coach Bob Nelligan describes the 2007 freshmen as the building blocks for the future of Maryland gymnastics, "High expectations have been set for this class. I don't predict results, but I do promise the beginning emergence of a nationally competitive team."
Coach Nelligan knows this class has talent and produced impressive results from the Junior Olympic level, but now they will have to prove themselves at the collegiate level. "This freshman class has come in with a level of confidence that I have not seen in the past. However, they are now exposed to college life for the first time and will experience growing pains. I know it is my job to keep up the confidence that they came in with." Nelligan said.
Coach Nelligan also sees interesting parallels between this year's team and the 2001 Maryland gymnastics team, his most successful team in recent years. "The teams have the same type of chemistry, a young team with strong leadership. The 2001 co-captions, Jill Fisher and Gillian Cote, have a very similar relationship as this year's captions, Rachel Colon and Angela Ferg. Fisher and Colon had extremely successfully careers prior to joining the Maryland team. Ferg relies on Colon for confidence and experience like Cote did with Fisher. Both Ferg's and Cote's gymnastics blossomed in college. Also the 2001 team had six freshmen just like the 2007 team. Hopefully this year's team can experience the same type of results." The 2007 squad is comprised of three seniors, three juniors, two sophomores, and six freshmen.
The Seniors
Co-captions Rachel Colon and Angela Ferg have begun providing leadership and guidance throughout the pre-season to the young team. Last season Colon emerged as a strong all-around performer and qualified as an individual competitor at the Southeast NCAA Regionals. Ferg was an individual qualifier on vault at the NCAA Regionals. Ferg will also be expected to turn in strong performances on the balance beam and floor exercise and possibly see action on the uneven bars for the first time in her collegiate career. Marisa St. Louis will return to competition was after being sidelined last season with an injury. She is looking strong on both the vault and uneven bars.
The Juniors
Gretchen Kittelberger returned to competition on all events last season after sustaining a season-ending ACL tear during her freshman year. Lindsey Bonomo has continued to improve and upgrade her difficulty over the off-season. She was a surprise for Maryland last year as she broke into the lineup on vault, balance beam and floor exercise. Halfway through last season, Morgan Fishbein established her position in the floor lineup and is expected to compete on floor again this season and possibly exhibition on the balance beam.
The Sophomores
Kim Loew was a stand-out freshman last season and surprised many by competing strongly on the uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise last season. If she can recover from injuries, she will contend for a position in the balance beam line-up. Kelsey Nelligan is training hard to be a vault specialist and looks to compete in the exhibition spot.
Maryland's "super six" freshman class consists of Michele Brenner (New City, NY.), Allie Dama (Lansing, Mich.), Brandi George (Orlando, Fla.), Candice King (Plano, Texas), Margaux Meeks (Winter Garden, Fla.) and Talia Tossone (Virginia Beach, Va.). Nelligan says, "The freshmen are all unique individuals with very different approaches to gymnastics and life. They are linked academically, because they are here for an education."
The Freshmen
The "super six" have earned six Junior Olympic national titles combined. King and Meeks are both former Junior Olympic vault champions and will add a powerful punch to the vault lineup. King swings a difficult uneven bars set with clean form. She also shows great amplitude on the beam and floor. George will compete in the all-around and will bring excitement to the beam lineup. In 2006, she had two skills named after her in the Junior Olympic Code of Points. A stylish competitor, Tossone has experience competing on the elite level and will also be a force on the beam lineup.
2007 Schedule
Maryland will begin the 2007 season at home against the Towson Tigers and the University of Pennsylvania on January 12, the first of five meets hosted in the Comcast Center Pavilion this year.
After their home opener, the team hits the road for three consecutive away meets. The Terps will take on the Pittsburgh Panthers and Michigan State Spartans on January. 19. The following weekend the team travels to the University of Kentucky to compete in a quad meet on January 26. The team will finish their road travel at the Governor's Cup hosted NC State on February 2.
Maryland returns home for a meet with a local rival, the George Washington Colonials, on Februaury 8. Next the team will travel to the New Hampshire Wildcats on February 17.
The Terps will come home to host a quad meet against UNH, Temple University and James Madison University on February 23. This meet, "Terps For a Cure" night is dedicated to raising donations and understanding for breast cancer research.
The home-season closes in March with two duel meets versus Penn State on March 2 and the 2006 EAGL Champions, the University of North Carolina, on March 10. The North Carolina meet will serve as the theam's Alumni and Senior Night.
The Terps finish their regular-season with two away meets and travel to Towson University on March 16 and the University of Michigan on March 23.
Head coach Nelligan believes the Michigan meet will be a season highlight and a great tune-up before entering post season competition, "Michigan is one of the premier women's programs in the country. It will be a great bench mark meet to evaluate the growth of our program and the competitiveness of our freshman. I believe the team will respond with a level of enthusiasm that can pull in a big score."
For the first time in eight years, the University of Maryland will host the EAGL Championships in the Comcast Center on Friday, March 30th. Following the EAGL Championships, the Terps look to compete at one of the six NCAA Regional Championship sites on April 14 and then advance to the NCAA Championships at the University of Utah on April 26-28.
