Gymnasts Go to NIU for MAC Opener
1/21/2016 12:00:00 AM | Gymnastics
Zach Libby, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich - Injuries. In one painful instance, they can derail every goal and objective for the season.
In the case of Central Michigan gymnastics, for the young and raw student-athletes who coach Jerry Reighard originally planned on training for the entire year in order to mold them into veteran collegiate gymnasts, are now starters, in place of the upperclassmen who are sporting crutches instead of a leotard.
Losing Kirsten Petzold and Miranda Wieczorek to season-ending injuries, along with last year's seniors to graduation, has changed the mantra from soaring to a 196 score to improving 10th-by-10th, due to the new faces in the lineup.
In turn, the unexpected losses have created opportunities for a group of freshmen to show strides of consistency in non-conference action this season, including Kasey Janowicz, who has won the all-around in CMU's first three meets, along with Skyler Memmel and Kailey Miller.
"Kasey is right where we anticipated she would be, she's doing great," Reighard said. "We're seeing strides in Skyler, we're starting to see her mature. Kailey is doing better and better every day. But we're still grooming people, and in our sport, that's not an overnight process."
Reighard has yet to scrap his mid-season ambition of finishing with an overall score of 196, but understands that it's a work in progress.
The Chippewas have increased their score in each meet leading up to their Mid-American Conference opener at Northern Illinois on Friday (8 p.m.). CMU is coming off a 194.775-193.775 win over Brigham Young last Friday.
CMU, which is 5-0, opened the season with a 193.425, then posted a 193.600 in its second meet.
"It's delayed a little bit right now," Reighard said. "Each week, that's the bar that we've set and we're working towards that score this weekend."
Northern Illinois (192.975) completed their non-conference schedule with a victory over Illinois-Chicago. The Huskies scored 192.975 in the meet, and swept the top three spots on bars in posting a season-high 48.750.
Central Michigan's 48.925 score on the bars against BYU was also a season-high, with Megan Lamphere posting a 9.875, as the team is inching closer to their criterion of a 49.000 score on that rotation.
"NIU is scoring where we've been scoring in the past couple meets," Reighard said. "First home meets sometimes affect athletes because it's friendly eyes, its people that you want to impress. Sometimes that puts a lot of pressure on gymnasts, but more often it turns around and really helps."
The Chippewas fell at home to Northern Illinois last season. CMU recovered from that loss to claim the MAC regular-season title.
"We can't put another championship ring on the fingers of our athletes if we don't take care of business this weekend," Reighard said. "We know what's at stake and I have every confidence that our team will do well."
Players Mentioned
