Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Diary Entries 2008 Season:  • Jan. 8  • Jan. 15  • Jan. 23  • Jan. 30  • Feb. 13  • Feb. 22  • March 4  • March 12  • April 3  • April 14  • August 4

Lately practices have been really exciting. We are all working hard and becoming more and more ready for the competitive season. As always however, we have had a few setbacks due to injuries. Senior Mark Freeman, one of our key competitors on rings, high bar, floor, and vault, injured his shoulder. He recently had surgery and is healing well so far.

But as for the rest of the team, we are looking pretty impressive. We have had a few practice meets since I last wrote to prepare for the real competitions which start Friday, January 18th at Haas Pavilion. The first of the practice meets was a learning experience, and we just wanted to evaluate where we were at physically and mentally. We did just that and we showed great improvement by the time the second practice meet came around. After the second practice meet is when we really started to look good. Currently we are in much better shape and are much more confident with our routines than when we started out earlier this year. We certainly have a long way to go, but in my opinion, we look very good for the beginning of the competitive season.

Our first meet of the year is against the No. 1 team in the country - Stanford. We know exactly what it is going to take for us to beat them: hit routines. Of course, sticking our routines is easier said than done, but we have the talent to beat them. One of the most important things is that we need to be consistent. I admit they are a very good team, but there is no reason that we shouldn't be better. I haven't been on a team that has beaten Stanford since my freshman year, and frankly I'm sick of losing to them. If there was ever a team that could and should beat them, it's this year's team. I'm asking everyone to come support us on Friday night and watch us take Stanford down!

Tim