HAWK TALK

April 2015

Issue link: http://catalog.e-digitaleditions.com/i/488386

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 132 of 156

133 Junior Doug Sullivan began the season ranked among the top three in the country on pommel horse. Event titles at the Windy City Invitational, Illinois, and against Illinois-Chicago in Iowa City has shown that the pommel specialist is one of the best in the country. A top-three score average of 14.917 ranks Sullivan 10th in the country. For the first time since March 17, 2014, Iowa had a weekly gymnast honored by the conference. Junior Jack Boyle was named Co-Big Ten Gymnast of the Week following Iowa's win over Illinois-Chicago on Jan. 24. Boyle posted two event titles on rings and floor, and finished second on parallel bars. "ere is a quiet intensity with a lot of the upperclassmen," Reive said. "ere is a job to be done and they are in here to prepare themselves for that job. at's an important part for the freshman to see." In addition to learning from the upperclassmen, the freshmen will also need to contribute to ensure the team's success. Dylan Ellsworth, Elijah Parsells, and Austin Hodges have been important pieces of the team all season. "I think the freshman will have a blast," Reive said. "It's going to be a bit of an eye-opener. No meet has that much intensity and energy to it. For them, it's going to be a realization of why we do this." e Big Ten Championships take place March 27-28 in University Park, Pennsylvania. Penn State will host the meet, which will be shown live on the Big Ten Network. T he seventh-ranked University of Iowa men's gymnastics team ended the regular season last week and has been in the practice gym working hard since. More than 10 days off from competition has given the Hawkeyes time to regain strength for a run in the postseason. "We are all about maintenance and refinement right now," UI head coach JD Reive said. "We had a pretty aggressive week of training last week. is week is all about individual deductions that we can clean up as we are doing these routines. It's a lot of focus on refinement." e Hawkeyes have shown flashes of greatness including a Senior Night win Feb. 14 inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Iowa set six career- highs and came from behind to defeat Big Ten opponents Minnesota and Nebraska with a score of 435.400. e team also set a season high on parallel bars with a 72.800. A week later the team bested that performance, posting a season-high 435.750 in its second consecutive competition at Penn State. "We haven't performed as well in the last two meets than we did in those, but that was not a result of training. It was a mental approach to the competition," Reive said. "Another piece of this recovery period is getting their confidence back." Individually, several gymnasts have shown promise throughout the season. APRIL SCHEDULE April 9-11 NCAA Championships

Articles in this issue

view archives of HAWK TALK - April 2015