Temple University Athletics
Saturday, January 6
Boston, Mass.
7:30 p.m.
Temple University
vs
Maryland
Gymnastics Kicks Off the 2018 Season on Saturday at the Little Boston Invitational
1.4.18 | Women's Gymnastics
PHILADELPHIA – Coming off a record-breaking year, Temple women's gymnastics is set to open the 2018 season on Saturday, Jan. 6 at 7:30 p.m. in Boston. Hosted at the Hynes Convention Center, the Little Boston Invitational will also feature Maryland, Towson and New Hampshire.
The Owls closed out the 2017 season with a 16-18 overall record and 22 individual event titles including the program's first-ever ECAC uneven bars champion. Additionally, the 2017 squad topped the program vault record twice, now holding the highest vault team score in history with a 49.125. Collectively, Temple gymnastics reset the school record for the sixth time in 2017 with a season-high score of 194.975 on March 12 in McGonigle Hall. The regular-season finale score now stands as the highest score in program history. Along with finishing the regular season ranking first in the ECAC with the highest RQS team average in school history, the Owls earned the program's highest-ever ECAC Championships total with a 193.675 and the highest team bar total at the meet with a 48.45. In 2018, the coaching staff is looking to reach the same level of success.
"We believe this year will be another record-breaking year. As long as we can keep the team healthy and enthusiastic, we have the potential to surprise a lot of people"says head coach Umme Salim-Beasley. "If we can continue to build confidence from one competition to the next, we will be in a really good positon to truly be competitive against every team we face this year."
Salim-Beasley, the 2017 Co-Northeast Regional Coach of the Year, along with her staff, led the 2017 team to the top 10 best program scores of all time.
"Considering all of the accomplishments that we made last season, in retrospect, it was a huge step as a coaching staff from our first year into our second," says assistant coach Mike Rosso. "Going into 2018, we are looking to take another huge step. We couldn't be more enthused or more ready for the season to be here."
This season Temple will return 12 members of the 2017 team including ECAC medalists: seniors Alexa Phillip, Sahara Gipson and Kerry Arone, junior Brehana Wiczkowski, and sophomore Daisy Todd. While Phillip led the way on bars at the ECAC Championship with the gold, Arone and Todd snagged third and fifth place, respectively. Gipson earned the silver on vault, placing second overall with Todd just behind in third. In the all-around, Todd placed second, earning her ECAC Rookie of the Year honors.
Last year, the 2018 co-captains each made a statement with program-best scores. Gipson scored the program's first-ever 9.875 on vault at the Maryland five-meet, only missing the all-time record by .025. Wiczkowski became the first Owl to score a 9.925 on beam at the dual against Cornell, missing the program record by just .025. The then-sophomore also tallied four scores of 9.8 or above on the event, tying for the all-time record.
During her first season with the Owls, Todd quickly made a name for herself. Along with reaching the program's third-highest individual all-around score with a 39.025, she posted seven all-around marks that sit within the program's top-15 list and earned seven scores of 9.8 or above on bars, tying for the all-time record. Todd became the first Owl to be selected to NCAA Regionals since 2009 where she competed as a bar specialist, earning 24th out of 42 with a score of 9.8.
In addition to its 12 veterans, eight freshman will join Temple gymnastics for the 2018 season. Newcomers include Aryanna Anderson, Tori Edwards, Erica Fuchs, Delaney Garin, Kaci Martir, Jordyn Oster, Madison Rennix, and Monica Servidio.
"Our freshmen really want to make their mark," says Salim-Beasley. . "As a whole the freshman class may be our strongest contributors because of the class size and their eagerness to earn spots in the lineup. They are very hungry to come out and compete at the college level. Their energy has pushed our upperclassmen to step up their intensity. Our returners want to compete. They understand that for them to be able to keep their lineup spots, they are going to have to work a little harder than previous years. That contribution from our freshmen class has driven the entire team to elevate their performance levels."
With a host of both fresh and seasoned talent, Salim-Beasley notes that the squad's strongest asset this year will be its newfound depth. Each year brings a number of changes, but for any team, being able to increase talent where there may not have been before is a good change.
"Although we have a few gymnasts who are nursing nagging injuries that we might not immediately lean on in the first few competitions, we are comfortable knowing that we can count on the next gymnast in line to step in and fill that spot," says Salim-Beasley. "That speaks to the amount of options we have this year that we have not had in previous years. Our team is comprised of talent that from our lead off gymnast to our anchor, every gymnast has the ability of scoring equally. In years prior, we have not had that luxury. This year we can count on eight to ten gymnasts per event at any time to positively impact our performance."
With the precedent of post-season success, Temple gymnastics looks to take one competition at a time. Over the past few weeks, the team's focus has surrounded perfecting the little details. Stuck landings, performance level, and accentuating movements have been their biggest priority of the past few weeks of practice. The coaching staff makes it a point to show the team their progress on a daily basis to help keep their practices in perspective and build their confidence.
"We want to mentally prepare the team for competition, and showing their progress on a daily basis helps us to achieve that," says Salim-Beasley. . "We are familiar with who our competition is and we know what we have to do in order to be successful. Our focus moving forward is to build off of every meet. We will lay the foundation with the first competition and then progress from there. Our plan is to be able to look back at each meet, see where we can improve and find deductions that we can minimize on every event. That continuous improvement can make a huge difference in the final score from meet to meet."
Overall, the team is excited to see what the 2018 season has in store. According to the Salim-Beasley, determination is key. While the squad is hungry to surpass the accomplishments of 2017, its overall success is dependent on maintaining that determination and level of consistency.
"As a staff we are focused now on framing a mindset and helping the team to prepare as much as possible for our first competition," says Salim-Beasley. "We aim to help them understand that mindset repetition and focus will make all the difference in their performance. Physically, our gymnasts are all ready to compete. Their routines are ready. From here on out it is all about excitement and preparation of the mind, body and soul. We can't wait to see what this team is capable of!"
The Owls closed out the 2017 season with a 16-18 overall record and 22 individual event titles including the program's first-ever ECAC uneven bars champion. Additionally, the 2017 squad topped the program vault record twice, now holding the highest vault team score in history with a 49.125. Collectively, Temple gymnastics reset the school record for the sixth time in 2017 with a season-high score of 194.975 on March 12 in McGonigle Hall. The regular-season finale score now stands as the highest score in program history. Along with finishing the regular season ranking first in the ECAC with the highest RQS team average in school history, the Owls earned the program's highest-ever ECAC Championships total with a 193.675 and the highest team bar total at the meet with a 48.45. In 2018, the coaching staff is looking to reach the same level of success.
"We believe this year will be another record-breaking year. As long as we can keep the team healthy and enthusiastic, we have the potential to surprise a lot of people"says head coach Umme Salim-Beasley. "If we can continue to build confidence from one competition to the next, we will be in a really good positon to truly be competitive against every team we face this year."
Salim-Beasley, the 2017 Co-Northeast Regional Coach of the Year, along with her staff, led the 2017 team to the top 10 best program scores of all time.
"Considering all of the accomplishments that we made last season, in retrospect, it was a huge step as a coaching staff from our first year into our second," says assistant coach Mike Rosso. "Going into 2018, we are looking to take another huge step. We couldn't be more enthused or more ready for the season to be here."
This season Temple will return 12 members of the 2017 team including ECAC medalists: seniors Alexa Phillip, Sahara Gipson and Kerry Arone, junior Brehana Wiczkowski, and sophomore Daisy Todd. While Phillip led the way on bars at the ECAC Championship with the gold, Arone and Todd snagged third and fifth place, respectively. Gipson earned the silver on vault, placing second overall with Todd just behind in third. In the all-around, Todd placed second, earning her ECAC Rookie of the Year honors.
Last year, the 2018 co-captains each made a statement with program-best scores. Gipson scored the program's first-ever 9.875 on vault at the Maryland five-meet, only missing the all-time record by .025. Wiczkowski became the first Owl to score a 9.925 on beam at the dual against Cornell, missing the program record by just .025. The then-sophomore also tallied four scores of 9.8 or above on the event, tying for the all-time record.
During her first season with the Owls, Todd quickly made a name for herself. Along with reaching the program's third-highest individual all-around score with a 39.025, she posted seven all-around marks that sit within the program's top-15 list and earned seven scores of 9.8 or above on bars, tying for the all-time record. Todd became the first Owl to be selected to NCAA Regionals since 2009 where she competed as a bar specialist, earning 24th out of 42 with a score of 9.8.
In addition to its 12 veterans, eight freshman will join Temple gymnastics for the 2018 season. Newcomers include Aryanna Anderson, Tori Edwards, Erica Fuchs, Delaney Garin, Kaci Martir, Jordyn Oster, Madison Rennix, and Monica Servidio.
"Our freshmen really want to make their mark," says Salim-Beasley. . "As a whole the freshman class may be our strongest contributors because of the class size and their eagerness to earn spots in the lineup. They are very hungry to come out and compete at the college level. Their energy has pushed our upperclassmen to step up their intensity. Our returners want to compete. They understand that for them to be able to keep their lineup spots, they are going to have to work a little harder than previous years. That contribution from our freshmen class has driven the entire team to elevate their performance levels."
With a host of both fresh and seasoned talent, Salim-Beasley notes that the squad's strongest asset this year will be its newfound depth. Each year brings a number of changes, but for any team, being able to increase talent where there may not have been before is a good change.
"Although we have a few gymnasts who are nursing nagging injuries that we might not immediately lean on in the first few competitions, we are comfortable knowing that we can count on the next gymnast in line to step in and fill that spot," says Salim-Beasley. "That speaks to the amount of options we have this year that we have not had in previous years. Our team is comprised of talent that from our lead off gymnast to our anchor, every gymnast has the ability of scoring equally. In years prior, we have not had that luxury. This year we can count on eight to ten gymnasts per event at any time to positively impact our performance."
With the precedent of post-season success, Temple gymnastics looks to take one competition at a time. Over the past few weeks, the team's focus has surrounded perfecting the little details. Stuck landings, performance level, and accentuating movements have been their biggest priority of the past few weeks of practice. The coaching staff makes it a point to show the team their progress on a daily basis to help keep their practices in perspective and build their confidence.
"We want to mentally prepare the team for competition, and showing their progress on a daily basis helps us to achieve that," says Salim-Beasley. . "We are familiar with who our competition is and we know what we have to do in order to be successful. Our focus moving forward is to build off of every meet. We will lay the foundation with the first competition and then progress from there. Our plan is to be able to look back at each meet, see where we can improve and find deductions that we can minimize on every event. That continuous improvement can make a huge difference in the final score from meet to meet."
Overall, the team is excited to see what the 2018 season has in store. According to the Salim-Beasley, determination is key. While the squad is hungry to surpass the accomplishments of 2017, its overall success is dependent on maintaining that determination and level of consistency.
"As a staff we are focused now on framing a mindset and helping the team to prepare as much as possible for our first competition," says Salim-Beasley. "We aim to help them understand that mindset repetition and focus will make all the difference in their performance. Physically, our gymnasts are all ready to compete. Their routines are ready. From here on out it is all about excitement and preparation of the mind, body and soul. We can't wait to see what this team is capable of!"
Players Mentioned
AA
/ Women's Gymnastics
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/ Women's Gymnastics
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/ Women's Gymnastics
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/ Women's Gymnastics
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/ Women's Gymnastics
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/ Women's Gymnastics
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