The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1371232
HAIL TO THE VICTORS The women's gymnastics team set a program record with a 197.95 score to secure the Big Ten regular- season championship Feb. 22 of last year. However, a few weeks later — before the postseason could even begin — the rest of their campaign, like all NCAA sports, was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the 2020-21 season, there was a two-week pause when the team was not even able to practice midseason and other disappointments, such as not repeating as the conference's regular-season champi- ons and finishing second at the league's postseason meet. However, the Wolverines were at their best when it counted the most. Winning the NCAA Regional, where they tied the program record with a team score of 198.100, and sweeping that competition's event titles marked just the beginning. The team notched its best-ever NCAA Champion- ships score (197.8625) to advance to the NCAA Team Finals, where it reset its record for best overall score with a 198.2500 tally. It was a historic mark not only in terms of the aggregate score, but it also clinched the program's first-ever national title and Michigan's first NCAA team championship in any sport since 2014. The Wolverines became just the seventh school to win an NCAA women's gymnastics title and did it with the third-best score ever at the event. Read more about the stellar performance on pages 42-45. PHOTO COURTESY MICHIGAN PHOTOGRAPHY