Title: Mens Gymnastics again breaks team records at ECAC's
By: David Golombek, Team Member

Last weekend's Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Men's Gymnastics Championship saw the MIT men continue to break team and personal records. The meet showcased most of the best teams on the East Coast, including Temple University and University of Massachusetts, ranked 6th and 14 respectively in last weeks national standings. While MIT did not come close to beating such powerhouses, it once again came close to beating division 1 ranked University of Vermont. With nationals still to come this year, MIT has one more chance to beat this close rival.

Again this week, the team brought the team score up to a new record. Now at 181.50 points, this team record is up over 10 points from first meet of the season. And although only the top four scores count on every event, MIT would have set a record for a five man team with 215.7, as scores were recorded in previous years. Rob Cooper '97 again had a strong meet, coming close to breaking the individual record again.

MIT started off the meet on it's strongest event, the still rings. Geoff Phillipe '95 started off the round, performing his best routine of the season, as did Andrew Lobban '97 who followed him. The two scored a 7.45 and 8.4 respectively. They were followed by Rob Cooper and Scott Lazerwith '95. Chris Ellefson '95 finished off the event with an excellent routine, scoring a 9.0 to tie his personal best on the event.

Pommel Horse, next on the rotation, similarly went well for the team. Andy McCraith '98 and Van Van '97 started off the event with good routines. Ellefson, Lobban, and Cooper followed, all posting excellent individual scores. MIT's strong showing on these first two events put them over a point ahead of the University of Vermont at this point in the meet.

David Golombek '98 started off floor exercise for the team, followed by Van, Art Shectman '95 and Ellefson. All four threw clean routines to help get the event started. Cooper finished off the round, setting a personal best with his 9.0 scoring routine. Unfortunately, U. Vermont regained the lead slightly by this mid-point of the meet, and held on to it till the end.

Golombek and Van led the Parallel bars team, followed by Lazerwith who scored a personal best of 7.50. Cooper, Lobban, and Ellefson finished off the event in good form. High bar followed, with Van, Shectman, Ellefson, Cooper, and Lobban all swinging very clean routines. Cooper set a personal best of 7.9 on the event.

Vault finished the meet on a high note for MIT, with Shectman, Phillippe and Golombek all throwing handsprings for good scores. McCraith and Ellefson also threw excellent handsprings, scoring 8.4 and 8.45 respectively, approaching perfect scores for that trick. Cooper finished off the event with a handspring front, scoring a 8.55.

This was the final regular season meet of the year for the MIT gymnastics team, but still to come are national in Texas. These will be held after spring break, so the season continues on for quite a while. For more information on the team, check out it's homepage at http://web.mit.edu/m-gymnastics/www/gymnastics.html.