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The Minnesota Gophers gymnastics team will try and emulate the Gopher women’s hockey team Monday night and knock off a rival ranked #1 in the nation. The defending NCAA champion Michigan Wolverines gymnastics team comes into the Pav for a huge duel meet against the preseason ranked #9 Gophers Monday night. Minnesota will try and do as they did at the Big Ten Championships at the Pav last spring and knock off the Wolverines.
Minnesota enters the meet coming off of a big tri-meet win last weekend over #8 UCLA and #17 Iowa. The Gophers scored a team score of 196.900 and were led by 5th year senior Lexy Ramler who won the all-around with a nation’s best score of 39.700. She recorded 9.95 scores on both the beam and bars. That performance earned Ramler her Big Ten record 19th Big Ten gymnast of the Week honor for her career. Ona Loper added a 9.95 on the vault as well.
Michigan has not fallen off a bit from their national championship winning performance last season. They remain ranked #1 in the nation as a team, and are #1 overall on both vault and floor exercise. The Wolverines rank in the top five on all four events, coming in at No. 3 on the uneven bars and No. 5 on the balance beam.
Six individuals rank in the top 15 across all four events with senior Natalie Wojcik being the nation’s top athlete on the uneven bars and balance beam, while Gabby Wilson and Abby Brenner tie for third on floor exercise and Heiskell ranks third on the beam.
If the Gophers are to defeat the Wolverines it will take not only epic performances from their two all-around stars in Ramler and Loper, but need some of their more niche performers to have huge nights as well. Mya Hooten has been a floor routine star—she needs a big night. Maddie Quarles has put up big scores on the vault—she needs a big night. And the Gophers will need some of their freshmen who compete on the beam to grow up very fast.
It’s not going to be easy for Minnesota, but for fans it’s an epic start to the Big Ten season. The meet begins at 7PM and will air live on BTN for those who can’t make it to the Pav. Good luck to the Gophers an SKI-U-MAH!