Rugged Regional Field Awaits CMU Gymnasts
4/3/2015 12:00:00 AM | Gymnastics
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. -- The day has dawned for the Central Michigan gymnastics team as it hopes to make program history on Saturday when it takes the floor at the NCAA Regional at Ohio State.
A top-two finish puts CMU into the NCAA Championships -- scheduled for April 17-19 in Fort Worth, Texas -- for the first time ever.
"The approach we take for every meet, for every opponent, is always the same," said longtime CMU coach Jerry Reighard. "It's go out and do the job that you trained to do and when you train to be the best then we expect that to occur out there on the floor.
"It goes to, `You can control whether you land or not, you can control whether your toes are pointed or not.'
"It all is focused on one minute of your life: Can you do that for one minute? And those that can will move on. Those that can't, they're done for the season."
The Chippewas have pointed to this very moment since the beginning of the season. They have six seniors on the roster, each of whom has been a part of a number of Mid-American Conference individual and team championships.
But their ultimate goal is to make it, as a team, to Fort Worth.
It won't be easy. The Chippewas, who are ranked 21st, find themselves in a highly competitive six-team regional field with No. 6 Michigan, No. 7 UCLA, and 18th-ranked Arizona. The host Buckeyes and Kentucky round out the field.
In short, the Chippewas will have to go toe-to-toe -- and beat -- some true heavyweights.
"Every NCAA regional, no matter what sport it is is the toughest competition anyone is going to face, whether you're the No. 1 seed or not, everybody there is good," Reighard said. "Regardless of that our goal has been since September to make it to the national championships. It will be a fight, it will be a battle. But everybody at this meet starts out tied and that's the way we're approaching it."
And that's the way the Chippewas have looked at it since the very beginning. With a veteran-laden roster, CMU entered the season harboring legitimate hopes of making history.
But it hasn't been all smooth sailing. Injuries have played a role, and the overall performance has been up and down. The Chippewas seemed to be gaining steam heading into the MAC Championships, but finished second behind rival Kent State, ending at five their record streak of MAC titles.
That disappointing end -- which came after the Chippewas had won their first regular-season MAC title since 2012 -- may, indeed, serve as motivation, Reighard said.
"I've been asking my athletes, `If we were in a tie-breaker, could I call on you to break the tie and win against somebody from another school?'" Reighard said. "That's the mentality, that's the strategy that we have.
"Every athlete there can get a maximum score of 10. Can't get any higher than that. We're trying to be stingy and minimize the deductions that we're willing to accept. If we're able to do that -- and I think we can -- we'll be in the running."
The Chippewas have knocked on the door in the past. They were third a year ago, matching the second-best regional finish in school history.
It comes down, Reighard said, to performance, and the Chippewas control their destiny.
"It absolutely is a situation in our sport that no one is out there to shake the balance beam, no one's going to do anything that can affect our performance except us," he said. "It's controlling the what we can control. We can't control the judge's score, we can't control the rotation that we get, but we can control the performances that we put on the floor."