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Downtrodden Seawolves
still on the up
Gymnasts overcome injuries
for strong home finish
By Michelle B. Loscher
Northern Light
The Seawolves gymnastics team could publish its own medical
dictionary and identify ailments by mug shots of team members.
This season the team has featured a broken foot, a shoulder
dislocation, sesamoiditis (a foot injury), and a bone contusion
with cartilage damage, to name a few.
While lack of health has held the Seawolves back their
last few away meets, the team fought for a strong finish
to their home season March 13. The Seawolves may not have
walked away from the weekend series against San Jose State
with a win, but they did come away with two new records
and the third highest team score in school history.
The opening competition was not a strong one for the University
of Alaska Anchorage, as they finished with their second
lowest season score of 187.750, almost 7 points behind San
Jose’s 194.100. But let’s put the loss into
perspective.
They only had seven of their 10 eligible team members
competing. That number includes junior Joanne Mitchell,
competing for the first time this season after dislocating
her shoulder in early January. UAA was missing freshman
phenom Dominique Ingram, who holds the school all-around
and vault records, and star beam worker Brianna Thomas,
who has earned the highest score on beam twice this season.
Ingram sat out Friday’s event in order to rest up
an injured foot for one more day. Thomas had been out of
practice for over a week due to illness.
University of Alaska Anchorage head coach Paul Stoklos
understands the detrimental nature of any injury during
the gymnastics season.
“These were not necessarily bad injuries but just
untimely,” said Stoklos. “Our season is so short,
it doesn’t span two semesters like basketball or hockey.
We get an injury and we’re shot.”
The absences left an opening for freshman Rachael Lehmkuhl
to step in and compete in her first all-around of the season.
Junior Amanda Kolosovsky also filled an all-around position
for the third time this season. Kolosovsky posted the team’s
second highest score with a career-high 37.925. After having
shoulder surgery just last summer and only starting to practice
bars a few weeks ago, the score was no small feat.
“Mandy is really coming on strong,” said Stoklos.
“We only started her doing bars not even a month ago.
Her scores aren’t huge, but [they have really been
improving] over the past few weeks.”
The other Mandy, senior Mandi Burdick turned in the team’s
top performance,with 38.10 in the all-around and tied her
personal best floor exercise score of 9.850.
Despite the serious dent in their lineup, the Seawolves
still managed to pull out a score that was not even half
a point short of the 2003 season’s top score. To put
it simply, the tired, injured and frustrated Seawolves of
2004 can compete on the same level as the healthiest, most
focused Seawolves of 2003.
With Ingram and Thomas back in the lineup the Seawolves
pulled out a 190.950, only 2.650 points behind San Jose,
the top team in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.
“You want to be out there to help your team as much
as possible and I am glad I got a chance to go out and do
that tonight, and hopefully I get a chance to do that in
conference,” Ingram said.
She scored a season-high 9.750 on the bars and helped
the Seawolves break the team’s bars record with a
48.000. She started the meet off with a vault score of 9.925,
smashing the school record of 9.85 she previously held.
“I had no clue. I actually didn’t think it
was that great of a vault,” Ingram said. “I
was just hoping that it was good enough to help the team
out, and when I saw the score…amazing!”
Burdick has been defined by her consistency and finished
here home career with her fourth highest all-around score,
a solid 38.300. The total including a 9.825 on the floor
and 9.675 on vault.
“Mandi is a really solid competitor,” Stoklos
said, “We always know when she goes out there what
we can expect. Great team leader and good team organizer.”
Co-captain Amy Jones, who shares her title with Burdick,
echoed Stoklos’ sentiments about Burdick.
“You never had to doubt her. She knew her job and
she’d go out and do it,” Jones said.
While Saturday was the last chance local fans had to see
Burdick compete, the season isn’t over and she is
far from done as a Seawolf. The team will visit San Jose
in two weeks for the MPSF Championships. A top performance
there could help them earn a team slot at the USA Gymnastics
National Championships April 8-10 in Denton, Texas. The
brilliant individual performances of this season may even
earn a few berths to the NCAA Division I West Regional Championships,
April 3, in Corvallis, Ore.
But no matter what championship meets the Seawolves find
themselves at, one thing is for certain. Opponents have
learned that UAA is a force to be reckoned with this season.
San Jose may be the best in the conference, but they are
going to have to prove it. The Seawolves know as well as
anybody that anything can happen in this sport.
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