Michigan vs. Nebraska Recap! (With videos)

              

The University of Michigan gymnastics team is on a role, winning their second meet of the season! Michigan came into Saturday's meet ranked #1 (tied with Florida), after a great season opener in Cancun where they posted a 196.575 for their final team score. 3,372 fans (including us) packed the Crisler Center on January 12th  for what we knew would be a great showdown between Michigan and their Big 10 rival, Nebraska.

Photo Credit: Triple Twist

Michigan started out on vault, with Nebraska on the bars. Freshman, Briley Casanova made her home meet debut, scoring a 9.725 for her clean yurchenko full. (Click here to watch it.) Junior, Joanna Sampson also vaulted a yurchenko full and scored a 9.8 which tied her with Stephanie Colbert and Katie Zurales for 3rd place. (You can watch Joanna's vault below.) Sophomore, Sachi Sugiyama scored  a 9.825 for her yurchenko 1 1/2, which was Michigan's highest score on vault. For Nebraska on bars, Janelle Giblin fell on her bail and scored a 9.475, luckily her score was dropped. Their highest bar score came from 2011 national team member, Jessie Deziel who scored a 9.875. (Watch below) After the first rotation Michigan was leading with a 49.000 to Nebraska's 48.950.

             
             

Next Michigan switched to bars and Nebraska to vault. Michigan had a very strong bar rotation scoring two 9.9's from senior Katie Zurales and sophomore Sachi Sugiyama. Junior, Shelby Gies  also brought in a big number scoring a 9.875. Nebraska had a weak vault rotation only averaging a 9.7, their highest score came from Jamie Schleppenbach who scored a 9.875. Jessie Deziel's 9.775 vault can be watched below.

            

In the 3rd rotation, Michigan had their first fall of the season. Sachi Sugiyama fell on her flight series and scored a disappointing 9.050. But the team rallied back and brought in some big numbers, therefore dropping Sachi's score. Katie Zurales scored a 9.9 and Brittnee Martinez scored a 9.875. Nebraska tried to catch up to Michigan on the floor exercise, with Emily Wong scoring a 9.925 and Jessie Deziel scoring a 9.875. 

Photo Credit: Triple Twist

In the final rotation, Michigan took to the floor and drew all the fans into their routines with upbeat music and fun choreography. Senior, Natalie Beilstein returned to the competition floor after sitting out the last competition season with an ankle injury. She scored a 9.9! Junior, Joanna Sampson closed out Michigan's competition with their highest score...9.925! Over on the beam, Nebraska brought in some high scores as well, Emily Wong scored a 9.9 and Jennifer Lauer scored a 9.950! But the crowd knew before Wong had even landed her dismount that Michigan had won this! The score flashed up on the big screen and the crowd burst into cheers. It was official...Michigan beat Nebraska; 196.900-196.300. 

           

In the all around competition, Joanna Sampson won the meet with a 39.400 which seals her 6th career win so far. Jessie Deziel was in 2nd with a 39.375. With Michigan's 196.900 from this week, they are ranked #2 (behind UCLA) If this team hasn't caught your attention yet...I don't know what will! Next week, Michigan is at home again and will face off with the University of Illinois. The competition will begin at 4pm ET and will be live on the Big 10 Network.

Photo Credit: Triple Twist

The rest of the week's rankings can be found here

*Unfortunately, my camera ran out of space on it so I could only record a few routines. Towards the end I started to record from my phone. (Sorry for the bad quality!)Those videos can be found on our YouTube channel. We will try to get some better videos and pictures at the next meet.