Oregon State University - Beaver Yearbook (Corvallis, OR)

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 The program is sort of a combination of what a lot of people are doing and what 1 feel would be best for our team, said Turpin. The program was designed to strengthen the muscles that the gymnasts use when they are performing their routines. The program consisted or 23 anaerobic exercises that were performed for 45 seconds each with a 15 second active rest of jumping jacks or running in place. The best part of the program, said Turpin, was that none of the exercises required the girls to do any gymnastics. This gave their bodies a break from the harsh rigors that gymnastics place upon them. Turpin introduced the program to the team last spring so that the girls could take it home with them over the summer and keep in shape. The girls really put a lot of time into conditioning, said Turpin. When they came back this year they were immediately six weeks ahead of where they were last year. We worked really hard with summer and pre-season conditioning, claimed Karin Nakano. It did a lot. Pre-season we built up on everything, said Carol Schroeder. By the time the season got here, we were in better shape. Schroeder also felt routines were easier to learn because of the conditioning. The conditioning helped so much, Kristin Nakano agreed. Everyone came in a lot better (at the end of the summer.) Apparently the conditioning worked so well that the girls did not want to miss any of it. Its the first team I've ever M-irl Cixiff had where after a practice I tell them they can skip the conditioning and a lot of them stay and do it anyway, said Turpin. The girls put in lots of work on their routines as well as the conditioning program. They worked towards perfecting what they have the ability to do, said Turpin. Our goal was to go out and perform and hit 24 out of 24 routines. The team accomplished that goal at the Spartan Invitational. Could they do it again? I thought we could better that, (the 186.00 scored at the Spartan), said Laura Hip-well. We could improve on our floors. We got better at every Gracefully poised on the balance beam, Carol Schroeder lines up her next maneuver in competition against Arizona State. meet, Hipwell continued. We started out strong and we just kept getting stronger. I think that everyone did a super job, said Kristin Nakano. Another asset to the team was morale. The morale was outstanding, said Turpin. 'The girls believed in themselves and in what we were doing. Turpin noted that morale was considerably boosted when the girls realized early in the season how valuable the conditioning program was. My feelings are that we kind of lost our rowdiness towards the middle of the season, said Kristin Nakano. After San Jose, anything we lost came back. Morale started out really Carefully wrapping her wrists, Beaver standout Tina Barnes prepares for the uneven bars at the Shanico Invitational. M«rV CMWt Gymnastics 213

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Smiling to the crowd, Moniq Munson performs her floor oxerc routine at the Shanico Invitation. Preparing to execute a cartwheel the beam, sophomore Debbie M Milt Colter Mark CoMrr Soaring through the air, Kristin Na-kano contributes to Oregon State's victory over Seattle-Pacific University. Struggling to control a yawn. Kristin Nakano awaits introduction along with her teammates at the Shanico Invitational. Cary L Wt t 212 Gymnastics

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good, then towards the middle of the season it went down a little bit, agreed Schroeder. It did come back up. The girls are really nice, not only as gymnasts but as people, concluded Prout. They're like your best friends. It's pretty nice. Even injuries were not too burdensome for the team. We were extremely lucky, said Turpin. We didn't have any major injuries. Turpin did mention that two girls had missed a month each. One had a sprained ankle and one had mononucleosis, but he attributed the Reaching for the lower bar, Tina Barnes performs on the uneven bars at the Shanico Invitational, where OSU placed third. Anxiously awaiting the judges' opinions, Amy Smidt watches for her score to be displayed during a Pac-10 meet at Gill Colisium. lack of injuries to the conditioning program. Fortunately, anyone on the team who did have a rough season due to injuries could hope for a better season next year. In other words, no one on the team was a senior and all of the members would be back the following year. I'm excited for next year, said Monique Munson. We're going to be even stronger, and that's really exciting. Next year will be much, much better, agreed Turpin. One of my long term goals is to try to always be in the top five (teams) in the country, he said. Next year he is hoping to place close to, if not in, the top five at Nationals. I don't put much stock in the win loss record, said Turpin. If a team performs and scores a 186 and that is the best they can do, I think of it as a win, even if another team scored a 187. Turpin set high goals because he realized that the Beavers best could place them in the top brackets. Of course you're not always going to win, explained Turpin. But if you're consistently up in the top, it says something about your athletes and your program. That Turpin could hope to attain such a goal this season or next was remarkable since he was only in his second year of coaching at OSU. He has done a lot for the team in two years, said Schroeder. She also pointed out how hard it was to take over and improve on a nationally ranked team within two years. He's a really, really, really good coach, added Prout. It's a good thing to get along with someone you will spend so much time working with. Turpin, who coached at a private club for 15 years before coming to OSU, said that he felt as if he had died and gone to heaven. However, Turpin was surprised at the lack of support students had for the team. At five home meets I think we drew 13,660 people, he said. He hoped to generate more student support with a publicity network. Ideally, he noted, the network would give students advance notice about times and dates of sporting events. Overall, Turpin said he was satisfied with where he was. I'm very pleased with the team and OSU, he said. But even in the best of places there is room for improvement. □ by Lindy Humphreys and Brian Adams C iy L Wrw 214 Gymnastics