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Last update - April 2nd, 2003
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National Qualifiers

By virtue of their performance during the year and the results at the ECAC championships, the following athletes have qualified to the NCGA National Championships to be held March 28th and 29th at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire:  Merritt Tam in the all-around; Cindy Chung on floor exercise; Francesca DeMeo on bars.  Ashley Rothenberg finished as an alternate on bars and due to an injury to the top bars qualifier, Shannon Hughey of Rhode Island College, Ashley will also compete at the NCGA Championships.

Ready for ECACs

With their best regular season performance in history already in the books, the Engineers will look to continue their success at this year's ECAC Championships.  As a team, they will have a chance to qualify to the NCGA National Championships to be held at Wisconsin - Eau Claire March 28th and 29th.  In order to do that, they will have to beat two teams that they have already beaten during the regular season, but they will need to outscore them by at least 1.05.  Besides the team competition, there will be an intense battle for individual event awards were junior Cindy Chung goes into the meet ranked 6th on floor exercise.  Sophomore Merritt Tam arrives as the third ranked all-arounder and second on balance beam.  Freshman Francesca DeMeo is ranked third on bars in the region.  These three gymnasts will carry MIT's best chances for a medal at these championships.

180 Conquered

The MIT gymnasts broke the coveted 180 point mark for the first time in school history in a victory over SUNY-Brockport (180.775-180.150) on Saturday February 15th in upstate New York.  The balance beam record of 45.80 was challenged as the team posted a 45.75, and their 46.95 floor total helped them maintain the number one national ranking on the event for the third week in a row.

Schedule Changes

The following changes have taken place, please note them and plan accordingly.
Jan 18th - additional teams will make it a 6 team competition - Ithaca College and Southern CT
Feb 15th at Brockport, the meet has been moved from 1:00 pm to 12:00 noon start.
March 1st - meet start time has been set at 5:00 pm. MIT will be hosting the Starlight Invitational during the morning.
ECAC Championships have been moved to Friday March 14th at 1:00 pm at Cortland.

MIT's class of 2006

Three members of the class of 2006 are expected to join the team this fall. Jennifer Sauchuk is a level 10 gymnast from Peabody, MA who competed at level 10 Nationals and finished 19th on beam. Francesca DeMeo is a the level 9 regional champion for Region VI on bars and beam as well as finishing 2nd in the all-around. Francesca is from Boxboro, MA. Chandler Hatton is a level 9 Western National qualifier from Portland, OR. We are very excited to have all three.

Big events this summer!

A few recent alumnae have updated us this summer with some wonderful news.
- First off, Tasi Chiarenza '97 and her husband Tim O'Malley became the proud parents of Breila Nikita who was born on June 28th, 2002.
- On July 13th, Alli Christenson '98 became Mrs. Robert Barmann in a beautiful wedding attended by (from l-r) Sonja Ellefson '01, Stephanie Cheng '00, Liz Ellingson '01, Sheila Rocchio '97, Eduardo Ovalle, Rachel Van Buren '99, Robin Chui '00 and Marnie Bell '99.

Not in the picture but also in attendance was Nann Kronschnabel '00. They all had a bit of news to share like the fact that Nann is planning on running the Chicago marathon for the second time. Rachel is training for her first marathon this fall. The biggest news came from Sheila who had just gotten engaged at the beginning of July. As a side note I must say a special 'Thank You' to Alli and Rob for inviting me to sing at their wedding. It was quite an honor to sing during the wedding ceremony and a memory that I will cherish forever.
- The last big news of the summer came from Catherine Rocchio '89 who gave birth to TWINS on July 18th. Marigold Angelina and Isabella Visca entered this world and became the newest members of the Rocchio family which already includes three Rocchio aunts. Sean Garrett is the proud father.

The 2001-2002 Season Wrap-Up

The overall goal of the 2001-2002 season was to remain healthy as a team. Although we did not make it through the season 100% healthy, it was much better than the previous two years. The better team health and strength of our first-year students combined to make the season a record- breaking one on several fronts. The first record to fall was team vault, and that happened on the second meet of the year. A new record of 45.45 was set when the team had not broken a 44.50 in nearly 4 years. On the third meet of the year, the bars record was broken, and again on the 8th meet to a new mark of 43.475. At the same meet, the 5 year old school record of 177.625 was broken by .025 as well only to be set higher at 178.525 the following meet. Finally, during the conference championships, the vault team set a new high of 45.525.
The class of '05 of Merritt Tam, Ashley Rothenberg and Whitney Watson made the biggest impact on the two events that had traditionally been MIT's weakest. All three of them had successful seasons and they all qualified to the NCGA championships as individuals. Merritt put together a season in which she only missed one beam routine all year and her season average was 9.443. The fact that her season average is higher than a 9.3 school record that stood from 94-98 shows how far this program has come in the last four years. Merritt capped a great campaign with a 9th place all-around finish at nationals and a 2nd place finish on beam while setting a new school record of 9.7. Ashley's highlight came during the first time the school record was broken as she contributed a career high 37.35 in the all-around and her strength in bars earned her the trip to nationals on that event. Whitney was able to qualify to nationals on beam on the strength of her performance at conference championship where she scored a 9.325. The three 'frosh' were consistent all year in setting the pace for this team with great contributions from Ms. Consistency herself, Amy Shui '02. Amy finished off her MIT career just like she started it, quietly wonderful. She was never the flashy gymnast that received all of the praises, but she was the backbone of the team during her four years at MIT. Fellow senior Cecile LeCocq also finished out a terrific MIT gymnastics experience by continiung to get better every year and contributing to the team.
The class of juniors was lead by Lindsey Wolf who successfully came back from a knee injury to contribute on both beam and floor. Caitlin Dwyer-McNally was having a wonderful year until she was injured in the last regular season meet of the year. Her work ethic and dedication have become a staple in our DuPont gymnasium and we hope to have her healthy enough to help us set the same tone in 2003. Tanya Burka was indispensable once again in filling in the holes from meet to meet and Carrie Garceau had an up and down year on both bars and beam. Our lone sophomore Cindy Chung had to battle a chronic ankle problem and was mainly limited to competing beam although she did contribute a great vault to set the new team mark at ECACs.
Overall it was a very positive year for the program and each of the team members. MIT was awareded the 2004 NCGA National Championships and coach Eduardo Ovalle was named NCGA coach of the Year, two new honors for MIT.

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