Women's Gymnastics To Open Season at GW Invitational Sunday

01/15/08 3:00PM

Williamsburg - The William and Mary women’s gymnastics team will open the 2008 season Sunday afternoon at the annual George Washington Invitational in the nation’s capital. The meet will be televised by CN8 and broadcast on tape delay basis.

CN8 is available through Comcast cable service in the Mid-Atlantic region, including the Richmond market. The tape of the George Washington Invitational will air on CN8 on Saturday, January 26 at 9:30 p.m. and again on Saturday, February 2 at 3:30 p.m. If you do not have Comcast cable service, the meet will also stream on the Internet in the same time slots at www.cn8.tv .

Sunday’s competition will feature the host Colonials, as well as North Carolina, Rutgers and ECAC foes Cornell and Temple. The meet is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. at GW’s Smth Center.

Entering the 2008 season, an early look at the Tribe reveals a solid senior leadership presence behind team co-captains Tricia Long (Humble, Texas) and Stevie Waldman (Downingtown, Pa.), who were both individual at-large qualifiers to the NCAA Southeast Regional last season. W&M also will feature a number of returning all-conference and USAG All-America performers and a talented quintet of freshman, all of which head coach Mary Lewis believes gives the 2008 Tribe the ability to succeed.

“Our expectations are to always finish in the top-three of the ECAC,” said Lewis, who is now in her 14th season. “I think this particular team is very motivated and has the desire to accomplish its goals, and one of the big things driving this group is its wanting to gain respect, both in the league and in the region.”

And a look at the Tribe’s schedule shows plenty of opportunities to gain respect against its annual tough slate. Once again, the schedule features national and regional-level qualifiers. A new twist that certainly has the potential to hasten the Tribe’s quest is a number of ECAC programs dotting the slate, including Temple and Cornell on Sunday. But, perhaps the most significant aspect of the schedule that could allow the program to regain its standing among the conference’s upper echelon is the fact W&M will be hosting the ECAC Championship at Kaplan Arena in March.

Leading the squad down the path to the conference championship will be Long and Waldman. Each is a strong leader and display a lead-by-example attitude.

Long is a two-time Regional all-around participant, having also competed in 2005, the same season she was named the ECAC Rookie of the Year. The team’s most consistent and dependable scorer over the last three seasons, Long is a three-time all-conference all-arounder and will once again be counted on to deliver in each event. The floor exercise, in which Long earned First-Team All-ECAC honors last season, is her strongest event, but she will certainly have an impact in all four line-ups.

When healthy, Waldman has shown the ability and talent to be one of the conference’s and region’s elite gymnasts, particularly on bars. Waldman held the Southeast Region’s 20th-best RQS on bars last season at 9.750, an average that also ranked second in the ECAC. She made her first trip to NCAA Regionals, earned her third USAG All-America citation and won three individual event titles, all after missing most of the first month of the season. Waldman has battled back and knee injuries throughout her career, but with a strong offseason workout routine, she is back to training all four events. Her lines and presentation on beam and floor standout and her body of work on bars speaks for itself, so a return to the vault line-up could be a major boost for the squad.

Other key performers for the Tribe this season will include juniors Becca Bacharach (Lancaster, Pa.) and Sarah Jacobson (Brecksville, Ohio). Bacharach enjoyed a breakout season in 2007 and Lewis is hopefully the junior can pick up right where she left off. Bacharach concentrated on upgrading both her vault and beam series, though her biggest impact could be on floor. With consistency, Bacharach could be one of the Tribe’s key contributors this season. Jacobson was another pleasant surprise last season, stepping into three line-ups and earning Second-Team All-ECAC on vault. Jacobson has worked on a stronger bars routine and a stronger vault for 2008, and she will also figure predominantly in the success of the floor group. Jacobson has been among the most impressive during preseason workouts, and the junior could be an all-conference candidate come March.

Sophomore Alison Medeiros (Hudson, Ohio) made an immediate impact as a freshman last season, earning Second-Team All-ECAC honors on beam and USAG Second-Team All-America status on bars but will be limited in the early part of the season returning from injury. One of the team’s most consistent scorers on vault as a freshman, Medeiros also showed flashes of brilliance on both bars and beam. She shared the individual title on beam against JMU with a season-high 9.775, and then took second on bars later in the season against the Dukes with a season-best 9.775 in that event. Medeiros’ progress during the preseason has been slow though after undergoing shoulder surgery in June. She could return to the beam line-up the quickest, but Medeiros’ impact probably won’t be felt until late in the season.

Following the GW Invitational, the Tribe will return to action one week later, traveling to West Virginia on January 27th. W&M does not compete at home until March 12th.