98-99 UPDATES
NCGA Nationals results and story
Sonja Ellefson, Rachel Van Buren qualify to NCGA Nationals
Final NCGA Rankings heading into National Championships (3/10/99)
1998 - 1999 Competitions (3W-13L)
Brown University 3/13/99 (story)
ECAC Championships at Springfield College 3/7/99 (story)
at U-Mass Amherst 3/6/99 (story)
at Springfield College 2/28/99 (story)
Rhode Island College 2/17/99 (story)
at University of Vermont 2/13/99 (story)
at Yale University 2/6/99 (story)
Springfield College 1/27/99 (story)
at Brown University with R.I. College 1/20/99 (story)
U of Wisconsin Eau Claire and Yale 1/17/99 (story)
at Southern Conn State University 1/16/99 (story)
at University of Bridgeport 1/10/99 (story)
1998 Nationals pictures are here!
97-98 Season Wrap-Up
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With a strong individual performance at ECACs on 3/7/99, sophomore Sonja Ellefson earns an invitation to attend the NCGA National Championships ranked as the number one all-arounder overall. Accompanying Sonja will be senior captain Rachel Van Buren who for the second year in a row qualifies to the Championship as a floor specialist. This year's Nationals will be hosted by Gustavus Adolphus College on March 19th and 20th and they have set up an official NCGA National Information Web Page. Good luck to our athletes!
97-98 was a year in which the team accomplished all of its goals and surpassed many of their expectations. The team was not as deep as the year before and that forced some individuals into competing some events that they had never done in the past, or had not trained in a few years.
The unexpected loss of last year's star freshman Lee Knight was overcome by the end of the year as the team was in the thick of a three way fight to qualify for the NCGA National Championships. Every individual in the line-up stepped up their routines and performed better than ever as the year came to an end. At Nationals time, MIT was represented by senior Alli Christenson, junior Rachel Van Buren and freshman Sonja Ellefson. Alli had a Cinderella final year as she saved the best meet of her life for last and finished 5th in the All-Around at Nationals. Rachel qualified on both beam and floor and set her personal best on floor at Nationals with a 9.425. Sonja had a tremendous freshman year as she broke or tied 4 out of 5 individual school records.
Not to be outdone, the women on the team that did not qualify to Nationals individually, also posted personal best marks of their own during the year. Nann Kronschnabel posted a 9.0 on beam for the first time ever and also racked up a 34.525 in the All-Around. Liz Ellingson posted a 9.375 personal best on floor and a 34.175 in the AA. Stephanie Cheng broke the 9.0 barrier on floor with a 9.175 and even competed beam once when it was absolutely necessary. All three of these individuals will be back next year and the team has something to build on.
One of the highlights of the season was a team trip to Denton, Texas in which the engineers faced off against Division II powerhouse Texas Womans University. Performances at the meets were good but it was the outing to BillyBob's Texas among other things what made the trip memorable.