CMU the Favorite at MAC Championships
3/20/2015 12:00:00 AM | Gymnastics
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - The inconsistency that marked the early season for the Central Michigan gymnastics team seems a distant memory now.
Sure, there is cause for concern, there always is for a coach, but the Chippewas' recent track record would suggest that CMU is right where it always expected to be: The favorite heading into the Mid-American Conference Championships.
The Chippewas, who are ranked 21st, will vie for their sixth consecutive title Saturday at the championships at Kent State. CMU is coming off a win over Western Michigan which gave it its first regular-season MAC crown since 2012.
CMU posted a 196.225 team score a week ago in Kalamazoo, their second-highest total of the season and it marked the fifth time they have crested the magical 196 mark this season. Four of those 196-plus scores have come in CMU's last five meets.
"You can't have a peak performance for an entire 12-meet season," CMU coach Jerry Reighard said. "Those non-peak performances are hard to accept, but they do keep you centered about what you need to do. Looking back, they really guided us and kept us on track for what we needed to do."
A first place this weekend would give CMU the MAC title sweep and would help build the Chippewas' resumé and momentum heading into the NCAA Regional in two weeks.
"You have to work hard every time for a 196," Reighard said. "There's never a time when it's going to be easy, it doesn't just flow. That's one thing we have to get our heads around, we have to compete hard, we have to mentally and physically strong."
The drive has never been a question what with a roster including six seniors who have never been anywhere but on top in the MAC. Before the season, the entire group set its sights on becoming the first in program history to qualify for the NCAA Championships.
"This group has been more of a physical challenge than a mental challenge," Reighard said. "Keeping our athletes at a peak performance level has been a coaching challenge. We just have so many aches and pains and the mental side of that is, can you perform at an optimal level with minimal practice? So it's a balancing act.
"I can never fault this group for lack of effort. That's never been one of my concerns."
The Chippewas have won a record 15 MAC titles overall (all in the past 25 years, all with Reighard at the helm). Still, nothing is taken for granted, because in CMU gymnastics, complacency is a dirty word.
"The one thing I don't have to do is remind them of what's on the line," Reighard said. "I don't even have to go there. They're fully aware of it and have experienced it.
"I think the athletes have figured it out. It's my job again to continually remind them that we have a big target on our back, that we're still hungry.
"It's not going to be easy for us to win this weekend. ... We have the talent to do this. It's the precision that we have to maintain that's going to determine the outcome on Saturday."
The Chippewas go into the meet as the No. 1-ranked team in all four events. CMU's Halle Moraw is ranked first on floor exercise, while Kylie Fagan is ranked first on bars. Fagan is sixth nationally on bars.
Players Mentioned
