The invitational was very competitive, as it usually is. This tournament had some of the best teams in the country, and we figured that Illinois and Michigan would be the two teams that challenged us the most. And as expected, they did. |
The team has looked pretty good. Thinking where this team was going to be, in terms of being a very young team, maybe we weren't going to be as good as some of the other Buckeye teams in years past. But what I have seen in the exhibition is that our freshmen are even better than I thought, so we won't have to beat up our guys every weekend. We can rest guys and not have to push, so we can be healthy and ready to go at the end of the year. |
This is the time in our season when we shut down and continue to practice through meets. We anticipate a drop in the national rankings, but we are focusing on the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments. |
We are thinking toward both the Big Ten and NCAA championships. We want to go to Michigan and win, but our focus is on the Big Ten championships in two weeks. |
We battled back. To see them come back from the hole they were in is promising. I hope this is a testament to the character of the team and carries through to the end of the season. I am proud of their response and I think it comes from the captains' leadership. |
We expect that they are going to improve. Listening to them they weren't at full strength and by then they hope to be. But I'm sure we'll train well and we don't want to lose at St. John. |
We had our share of not doing well. |
We have changed our training a little this year; our routines have gotten longer. To get prepared for this season, which is unusual because of the new rules making routines longer, we have done far more conditioning. We have been working with the strength and conditioning coach more this year than in previous years. |
We just didn't obviously have enough. Obviously we weren't prepared enough to come in here and not finish fourth. That's our one goal: Relax and just not finish fourth in this competition and just get to the second day and we obviously did not do that. |
We won back-to-back Big Ten championships and that's something to be proud of. It's two in a row, but we have to do more for the NCAA championships. |
What an experience for this kid after walking on the team freshman year. Now he's on the U.S. National Team and competing against the best gymnasts in the world. |