Husky gymnasts vault into season with intrasquad meet
December 1, 2006
The Husky women's gymnastics team will begin its season Sunday in a competition against itself.
[HTML_REMOVED] [HTML_REMOVED] [HTML_REMOVED]Date: Sunday, Dec. 3, 2006
Time: 2 p.m.
Venue: Hec Edumundson Pavilion
[HTML_REMOVED]It is fitting, since that's what this team will spend most of the season doing anyway.
Unlike most sports, a successful NCAA gymnastics team doesn't place as much emphasis on winning games (or meets, as they're called in the gymnastics world). Instead, gymnasts work on earning a high team score [HTML_REMOVED] the compilation of individual scores on each of four events [HTML_REMOVED] which contributes to the Regional Qualifying Score (RQS) each team gets at the end of the regular season.
A high RQS can help a team place well in post-season competitions, which will culminate in the NCAA Championships to be held in Salt Lake City at the end of April.
That being said, it would not hurt to win a few meets either.
The UW gymnasts are coming off a season that fans and team members would probably like to forget. The Huskies' 2006 effort was notable for its injuries, losses and being the first time in program history the UW did not qualify to go to regionals [HTML_REMOVED] the gateway to the NCAA Championships [HTML_REMOVED] as a team.
After 16 years with the UW program, former coach Bob Levesque retired last spring. In his place, the UW hired Joanne Bowers, formerly an assistant coach at Michigan, and a new assistant staff. Bowers said she hopes the renewed energy will revitalize the team.
To that end, the team will compete in its first competition of the season [HTML_REMOVED] an intrasquad meet [HTML_REMOVED] against itself. The event will be held at Hec Ed and is open to the public, giving team members a chance to perform full routines before judges as though they were competing against Stanford or UCLA.
Bowers said the idea for a full intrasquad meet a month before the season begins stemmed from a team retreat earlier this year.
"They felt they needed to gain more confidence," Bowers said. "We've got to be ready."
Rather than having the Dawgs in the bubble of Hec Ed's practice gym until the day they face powerhouse UCLA on Jan. 3, Bowers said she feels the pressure of performing before a crowd and judges will benefit the team later in the season.
"We had to set our standards higher," she said. "The team's standards were not high enough for themselves, so we set the bar higher."
Reporter Blythe Lawrence: blythelawrence@thedaily.washington.edu
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