Buckeyes Finish Preseason with Alumni Exhibition Sunday – Ohio State Buckeyes
1/6/2012 12:00:00 AM | General, Men's Gymnastics
Jan. 6, 2012
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Head coach Rustam Sharipov and the Ohio State men’s gymnastics team wraps up the 2012 preseason with the team’s annual alumni exhibition at 2 p.m. Sunday at Steelwood Athletic Training Facility. The exhibition will be the last opportunity for the Buckeyes to compete in front of the public before opening the 2012 campaign at the Windy City Invitational Jan. 14 in Chicago, Ill.
“The goal of this exhibition is for our alumni to get to know our new team,” Sharipov said. “There will be three or four guys on each event that will be showing their routines. It will be a great way for our guys to interact with former athletes in the program.”
The Buckeyes will open the home schedule at 4 p.m. Jan. 21 in a co-ed meet against Oklahoma at St. John Arena.
A FEW MOMENTS WITH THE 2012 CAPTAINS
Ty Echard, senior
On team’s improvement since first exhibition
“We learned that we are hitting our routines, but we need to perfect them because we are just getting through the routines right now. We are not at that perfect stage yet, but I think if we have the confidence in the routines we will be able to execute them and receive solid scores.”
On being named captain
“Being named captain for this team was great. I’ve always wanted to be a captain since I was a freshman here and I’ve been under some really good captains. It’s a huge honor for me.”
On pommel horse
“Pommel horse is a huge mental event. If you are not really prepared for it, everything can go wrong for you in an instant. It’s all about preparation. We have a very good pommel horse team this year and I think everyone is going to be more mentally tough this season.”
Blaize Monks, junior
On the final week of preparation before the regular season
“This week we are really looking at execution and our landings. We struggled with that at our first exhibition, but I think that was mainly just an endurance issue, which I think we have started to fix.”
On being named captain
“It meant a lot to me being named a captain. I’ve always tried to be a leader and help out other teammates. Having the team vote me as a captain was an awesome honor and I’m excited that they trusted me with that position.”
On expectations this year
“I am trying to redeem myself this year after a mistake on high bar during NCAAs last season and I wasn’t able to finish my set. I was really upset with that because I had good shot of All-American status. This season, I’m hoping to clean up my events on high bar and floor exercise and hopefully lead this team strong throughout the year. We have a lot of competition on the squad, which will definitely help our depth on the roster.”
