For years the Windy City Invitational has been known nationwide as a collegiate competition showcasing some of the best talent NCAA gymnastics has to offer. Teams from all over the nation travel to the great city of Chicago in hopes of bringing home the pride and title of being Windy City champion and bragging rights for a full 365 days.
The University of Iowa departed early from Iowa City, IA the morning of the January 15th ; seeking to make a national state of affirmation to the gymnastics world that Iowa Gymnastics is alive and well. As the competition began, each team stood next to the other, eagerly awaiting the chance to offset their opponents. Just before the start of the first rotation, the Hawks gathered in their huddled ritual to hear rousing words from their senior leaders. After the speech filled with ‘be confidents’ and ‘we got this’ came to a close, the Hawks exploded the room with the chant, “Gold and Black, on the attack, Lets go Iowa, AH!” The Hawks were ready to compete. Here are the event highlights and notable gymnasts.
During the First Rotation, the Hawks were on High Bar and the energy in the building was enough to lift the ceiling off of the building. They had some misses on the event but more success than failure for sure. In particular, Senior Ben Ketelsen and Freshman Javier Balboa put of large numbers for the Hawks. The Second Rotation was the Floor, which seemed to be in the favor of our Hawkeye gymnasts. Their tumbling was nearly through the roof on some of their skills! Senior John Haines, Sophomore Anton Gryshayev, and So. Matt McGrath flipped well enough to give the Hawks great representation by the Hawks.
The Third rotation, the Pommel Horse, was somewhat rocky for the Hawks, however Sophomore Broderick Shemanksy despite a fall on the very last skill of his routine, put out clean swinging for the Hawkeye pommel horse team. It was now onto the Still Rings.
The event made for showing off the strength and stamina of gymnastics was represented well by the Hawks. Notables were So. Anton Grysahvev, Sr. John Haines, and Fr. Lance Alberhasky. They all from first skill to dismount posted good numbers and clean routines.
With Vault being the fifth rotation and two-thirds of the meet already being over, the Hawks sitting in 5th place were looking to post large numbers for the sake of getting one spot higher up in the rankings. Even though the event did not quite go as expected, So. Anton Gryshayev and Fr. Javier Balboa had clean landings on the event. It was now time to move on to the last and final event – the Parallel Bars.
Since Parallel Bars was the last event, the Hawks were bent on showing the crowd, judges and fans alike that despite mishaps that happened that day, they were not finished just yet. So. Jack McClay, Fr. Lance Alberhasky along with So. Anton Gryshayev sealed the event for the team with clean, solid routines and a guaranteed 5th place finish.
The 2011 Windy City Invite, even if there were no first and second place finishes for the Hawks, was a building experience. They are a young team with a new coach and new way of training. Just like a planted seed in the ground the Hawkeyes need time to grow and branch up into the team they know they can be. It may not happen overnight, but it will happen. Trust and believe in your Hawks; I do.
Some reminders Hawks:
1) Next home meet Feb. 11th @ 7 P.M. in the Fieldhouse. Be there!
2) Continue voting for February's Profiled Hawkeye!
3) GymFace Album #8! Vote for the best one!
4) New Skill of the Week!
5) Anything suggestion of what you want to see on the site?! Shoot us comment in the comment box below! Everyone can submit a comment, not just members!
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