HAWK TALK

May 2015

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135 "is year's finish needs to become standard for us," Reive said. "At this program's base, we go to the NCAA team finals, and we should always be top six in the country. "e new goal is to not have so many ups and downs throughout the season. We want to estab- lish ourselves in the top three and stay there for the duration of the season." e Iowa coaches are looking toward next sea- son by projecting where each gymnast will be a year from now and what skills they can acquire to maximize production in the new practice facility opening in the summer. "We've already started the process of mapping out their skills," Reive said. "A lot of this stuff takes a year to acquire. Similar to your four-year academic plan, we do the same with gymnasts." e plan for each gymnast includes skills that the gymnast wants to learn along with skills the coaches feel is best for that individual moving forward and one final skill is added to make the gymnasts' routine as unique as possible. "We want to pick one unique element that you don't see anybody do," Reive said. "Every routine looks a bit similar, but we want to pick something that helps each guy stand out and the challenge this summer is finding something for each kid that makes them stand out from the other gymnasts on the floor." e Hawkeyes return 16 gymnasts for next season. C onsistency is beginning to show under the direction of head coach JD Reive, and a sixth-place finish at the NCAA Champion- ship shows the University of Iowa men's gymnas- tics team is heading down the right path. For the second time three seasons, the Hawkeyes made team finals at the NCAA Championships, finishing as one of the top teams in the country. "We showed up as a unit," Reive said. "It was one team that showed up, and we haven't done that since I have been here. It was a huge cultural shi for them. " During the NCAA weekend — one that included two team competitions and an individual competi- tion — Iowa set season-high scores in three events. Reive says the individual honors would not be there if the team did not come first. "is is about the team," Reive said. "All individual benefit comes from the team being put first. Once they understand that, everything will be better for them and the program will grow." e team-first mentality yielded success for indi- viduals. Jack Boyle joined teammate Matt Looch- tan, becoming the second Hawkeyes to garner an All-America accolade with a sixth-place finish (14.850) on high bar in individual event finals. It is the third straight year Iowa has had an All-Amer- ican. A fih-place finish in 2013 and a sixth-place finish this season shows a new standard being set for the Hawkeyes moving forward.

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