Oct. 20, 2008

Written by: Brandi George

This week was quite a busy but exciting week for us TERP Gymnasts. First off WE ARE FINISHED WITH BOOTCAMP!! We finished our final week of bootcamp this week, and everyone did an awesome job at pushing themselves and finishing the week strong. The end of bootcamp means no more spinning and running. I know we are all surely going to miss Kilee's Sunday runs! :) A special thanks to our wonderful strength and conditioning coach, Kilee Taflinger, and our spin instructors.

While everyone pushed their hardest with all the bootcamp activities, we also saw some pretty incredible stuff in the gym. As Brett Nelligan stated, we had the best ¡§workout of the pre-season¡¨ this Thursday. All week long everyone did an awesome job at pushing themselves in the gym and gave everything they had. Everyone has picked it up a notch. Vaults have been looking good. Kyra Phillips has a HUGE full on vault and really brings a lot of energy into the gym. We started doing full bar sets this week and saw some pretty incredible things happen. Lisa Reifschneider put her Arabian dismount on hard ground and Allison Dama is mastering a HUGE layed-out full out dismount. Kelsey McDermid is looking stronger and stronger on bars each week and Candice has put together a pretty nice set. Candice King showed us a pretty awesome fall/ let go of the bar and go flying!! It brought great laughter into the gym (after, of course, we made sure she was ok).

On beam we have been doing a lot of partner pressure routines/skills. The beam assignments are getting a little tougher but I believe will really help increase our confidence on beam and really learn to rely on/help out our teammates. Margaux Meeks did some really nice series on beam this week and Rebecca Pang did her triple series (lay lay) and it was gorgeous. Because Becca did her triple series, Brett has to do circuit lift with us this week (hope he can hang with us :)). Floor was also taken up a notch and was very successful. Michele Brenner is looking stronger than ever on floor and Talia Tossone has put together a new tumbling pass that is going to make her floor routine that much stronger. A few girls are coming back from being sick or from little injuries, but they are looking awesome and doing a great job at pushing themselves to get back into the swing of things.

It was also a pretty busy week in the classroom with many tests, papers, projects and midterms. Kelsey Nelligan is doing an incredible job at being captain and really motivates the team both inside the gym and out. We had a recruit this weekend and had quite a busy weekend. We went to Maryland Madness on Friday. We worked the Canned Food Drive as a team and brought in 276 cans!! We saw many people perform including the men's and women's basketball teams and Gymkhana. On Saturday we went to the football game to watch our Terp football players DOMINATE Wake Forest. It was an exciting game, and we had a blast. We had a team dinner at our place Saturday night, and Kelsey and I had fun cooking Ziti and Puppy Chow!! It was an awesome weekend, and we hope our recruit had a blast. As you can see, it was a pretty busy but extremely exciting week for us TERPS!! I cannot wait for this season, as I believe it is going to be a great season with some very exciting things happening. Hope you have enjoyed hearing about our lives up here at Maryland, and hope you can make it out this season!

GO TERPS,

Brandi George

Oh, I had a birthday last Monday, and all I can say is I have the best friends and family. I am so grateful for my wonderful coaches, teammates, friends, family and boyfriend and all their love. Thanks everyone! :)

Previous Terps Tumble Talks:
Oct. 13, 2008 - Lisa Reifschneider
Oct. 6, 2008 - Head coach Bob Nelligan