OHIO STATE WOMEN S GYMNASTICS FRIENDS & FAMILY. Dear Friends and Family of Ohio State Women s Gymnastics,

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1 WOMEN S GYMNASTICS OHIO STATE WOMEN S GYMNASTICS FRIENDS & FAMILY Dear Friends and Family of Ohio State Women s Gymnastics, It s the start of another school year, and we are extremely excited about what this year is going to bring! The fall semester is already well underway, and the girls have adjusted well to the new schedule, both in the classroom and in the gym. In the following pages of this newsletter, you can read more about the seven (yes, SEVEN!) new team members we have on the roster, what our pre-season has been like so far, and see some unique pictures of the team in action both in the community and on campus. If you are new to the Friends & Family program, I want to welcome you. The purpose of this organization is to supplement the Women s Gymnastics team budget and support the gymnasts on our team in meaningful ways. This is the third year of the Friends & Family program s existence, and we have grown from raising $10,000 in the first year to $25,000 in the second year. For the year, we hope to raise $40,000. These funds will help us to purchase new weight and cardio equipment for the gym, add new All-American pictures and Block O honors to our gym walls, subsidize our marketing and promotions budget, and help renovate our locker room and create a much-needed team lounge in our training facility! We appreciate your support to our team, and by joining the Friends & Family Program, you can support the GymBucks in a way that makes a significant impact. For joining the program at any level, you will receive more newsletters like this one throughout the year, weekly s with updates on how the team is doing throughout the competition season, invitations to our Friends & Family post-meet reception in the football stadium, and be the first to hear about special promotions that will be going on throughout the year. You can fill out a membership form (which you will find on page 5 of this newsletter) or simply donate online by searching for Fund at We hope you have a wonderful Fall, and we re looking forward to keeping you posted on how your favorite gymnasts are doing throughout the school year and gymnastics season! GO BUCKS! Carey, Bill, and Meredith OhioStateBuckeyes.com 1

2 MEET THE FRESHMEN NEWCOMERS Meet the Freshmen We are pleased to welcome a very talented group of young ladies to our team this fall! The seven freshmen who are now part of our Buckeye family will make a significant impact this season. Get to know them better by reading their bios below and finding them on Twitter and Facebook! Rachel Abrams Rachel is from Kingwood, TX and is the reigning All-Around champion for Texas. Rachel is going to be enrolled in Ohio State s Honors College and is studying Accounting. Rachel was coached by Dave Ballard, father of former Ohio State gymnast Beth Ann Ballard, and will be a strong contributor on Bars and // Rachel Abrams Micaela Cologie Micaela is our only in-state, home-grown Buckeye in this class! Micaela is from Thornville, OH, and was coached by former Ohio State gymnast and national champion Dick Huntworth. Micaela is planning on majoring in Exercise Science and will add depth to our Vault, Beam and Floor // Micaela Cologie Maggie Dunn Maggie is from Attleboro, MA and trained at Ace Gymnastics (however, she trained for years with Olympic Champion Aly Raisman!). Maggie was the Junior Olympic Balance Beam champion in 2009 and has won several event and All-Around honors at the Region 6 championships throughout the past 6 years of being a level 10 gymnast. Maggie will be a factor on all four events this // Maggie Dunn Maddie Herr Maddie comes to us from Southbury, CT and trained at Vasi s Gymnastics. Maddie is the 2012 National Invitational Tournament Balance Beam champion and can do about every trick in the book on Beam! She s also strong on bars and floor and will be adding depth on those events during the 2013 // Maddie Herr Sam Kent Sam is from Millville, MA but trained at Ocean State Gymnastics in Rhode Island. She is the reigning Rhode Island State All-Around Champion and qualified to JO Nationals in Sam has a beautiful bar routine and will be a factor on that event, as well as beam and // Samantha Kent Audrey Tolbert Audrey is from Frederick, MD and is an Interior Design major. Audrey was a member of the 2011 Region 7 All-Star team that traveled to Switzerland and is the 2012 Region 7 All-Around Champion. Audrey will be a strong contributor this season on all four Andrea Vazquez Andrea has traveled north to Ohio from Windemere, FL where she trained at Orlando Metro Gymnastics. Her younger brothers also do gymnastics and were previously coached by current Ohio State assistant coach, Casimiro Suarez. Andrea is the 2012 Region 8 Uneven Bars Champion and All-Around runner up. Andrea will be another strong all-around gymnast for our 2013 squad. 2

3 WOMEN S GYMNASTICS WHAT S GOING ON THIS FALL Community Service The Buckeyes are teaming up with the Ovarian Cancer Alliance of Ohio to help promote awareness and early detection of ovarian cancer. On September 9th, our team participated in the Strides for Hope 5K walk sponsored by the OCAO. Additionally, on Tuesday, October 9th, our team will be in attendance for a Meet & Greet at the OCAO event An Inspirational Evening with Shannon Miller. Shannon is the most decorated US gymnast in history and is also an ovarian cancer survivor. Our team is looking forward to the event and getting to meet Ms. Miller! For more information or to purchase tickets to the event, go to Academic Excellence The 2012 Buckeyes earned 12 Academic All-American Awards, and our team s Grade Point Average was recently named the 7th highest of every gymnastics team in the nation. We ended last year with a 3.62 and earned Ohio State s Highest Team GPA Award on campus for the second year in a row. We re off to a great start this semester, and are set to achieve academic excellence again in 2013! Pre-Season Shape Up Pre-Season for the GymBucks is always exciting yet challenging, both physically and mentally. This year, with the switch to semesters, we have an additional four weeks with the team! That means we can require 8 hours of conditioning per week which we formerly weren t able to do. The girls are building strength for the season by lifting with Coach Glass, spinning, rowing and taking Zumba classes. They re also working hard in voluntary practice, and our first day of OFFICIAL practice started September 20th. To help build unity among the team and teach them principles on how to handle the stresses of pre-season, we introduce a new theme each week that go hand in hand with UCLA s legendary basketball coach John Wooden s Pyramid of Success. NEW for the 2013 Season In 2013, we will be selling ticket to all five of our home meets. Tickets will be available online and at the door, and will cost $8 for adults and $5 for children and any Ohio State student will get in free with their BuckID. There will be several promotions throughout the season, so be sure to check our team s webpage for details each meet! Also, we are HOSTING NCAA REGIONALS in St. John Arena on April 6th! Mark your calendars for this exciting event and help cheer us on to our second straight NCAA berth! 2013 ROSTER 2013 SCHEDULE Rachel Abrams All-Around Freshman Kingwood, TX (Kingwood) Victoria Aepli UB, BB, FX Junior Dublin, OH (Dublin Jerome) Micaela Cologie VT, BB, FX Freshman Thornville, OH (Sheridan) Colleen Dean All-Around Senior Sylvania, OH (Sylvania Northview) Alex DeLuca VT, UB, FX Junior Longwood, FL (Lake Mary) Maggie Dunn All-Around Freshman Attleboro, MA (Bishop Feehan) Taylor Fasel UB, BB Junior Palos Heights, IL (Amos Alonzo Stag) Sarah Grady All-Around Sophomore The Woodlands, TX (The Woodlands) Maddie Herr UB, BB, FX Freshman Southbury, CT (Pomperaug Regional) Samantha Kent UB, BB, FX Freshman Millville, MA (Blackstone Millville) Alyssa Marohn VT, UB, BB Senior Langley, British Columbia Sarah Miller All-Around Junior Collegeville, PA (Methacton) Melanie Shaffer All-Around Junior Pittsburgh, PA (Thomas Jefferson) Audrey Tolbert All-Around Freshman Frederick, MD (Urbana) Andrea Vazquez All-Around Freshman Windermere, FL (Olympia) JANUARY BGSU Oregon State 19 vs. Iowa 25 vs. Nebraska FEBRUARY Penn State 8 vs. Michigan MSU 23 vs. Illinois (Co-Ed) Home meets in bold MARCH Illinois State 9 vs. Bridgeport (Co-Ed, Senior Meet) 23 B1G Ten MSU APRIL 6 NCAA St. John Arena NCAA UCLA All home meets take place in St. John Arena, schedule is subject to change. For an updated schedule and TICKET INFORMATION visit OhioStateBuckeyes.com OhioStateBuckeyes.com 3

4 BUCKEYE CHAT WITH ALEX DELUCA Hey Friends & Family Members! I hope everyone had an enjoyable and family-filled summer! Things here in Columbus are off to a great start! School has started and everyone is acclimating to the semester switch nicely. We have seven new freshmen and everyone looks great in the start of this preseason. I can t wait to grow closer as a team and see all of our hard work pay off this season. This summer, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to intern at the Donatos Pizza headquarters here in Columbus. I learned a great deal about what it takes to be a successful leader as well as learning how to work as a team towards a common goal. I look forward to applying these learned skills by being a great leader in the gym, in the classroom, and one day in the business world. As far as summer and fall training goes, we have been working really hard to reach our goals of winning Big Tens and getting back to Nationals. There are some new skills to watch out for this season and many new teammates that bring a variety to our team that will help us accomplish these goals. I am so proud of our team s accomplishments last year but that doesn t mean this is going to be an easy ride to NCAAs. We will continue to fight and constantly improve every week to earn a spot at Nationals. I can t wait to get the season started. Thank you all for your continued support. We have the greatest fans and we are excited to see everyone in January! Go Bucks! Alex Deluca Junior Ohio State Women s Gymnastics UPCOMING EVENTS & ALUMNI UPDATE Winter Clinic 2012 Saturday, December 1 st from 9:30am-4:00 pm Bring a canned good to receive an autographed poster! Sign up online at: Alumni Update Congratulations to all our alumni on their exciting news! Please Meredith Yonushonis (yonushonis.4@osu.edu) if you have more news you d like to share with alumni and Buckeye Nation! Newly Married - Beth Ann (Ballard) Myers ( 10), Kaylan (Clevinger) Campbell ( 08) Recently Engaged - Kristin Perchatch ( 10), Kiki Holman ( 10), Amanda Surine ( 09), Nicole Krauter ( 12) & Sarah Gillespie (current senior student-coach) Graduated Alyssa Meyer ( 09), from Physical Therapy School at Ohio State New Babies Bethany (Groskopf) Penton ( 04), Megan (Porter) Howrigan ( 04) 4

5 WOMEN S GYMNASTICS MEMBERSHIP FORM Name: Address: (as you would like it to appear for official donor recognition) City: State: Zip: Phone (H): Phone (C): MEMBERSHIP LEVEL Please check the level you are joining and indicate your donation. SCARLET Under $99 GOLD $500-$999 SILVER $100-$499 DIAMOND $1,000+ PAYMENT OPTIONS Type of card: Visa Master Card Discover Name as it appears on the card Card Number Expiration Date Signature Please make checks payable to: The Ohio State University, Women s Gymnastics Project # (memo) Send completed application and donation to: The Ohio State University Women s Gymnastics Team 1160 Steelwood Road Columbus, Ohio In appreciation of your support, all Friends and Family program members will receive invitations to exclusive women s gymnastics events, quarterly e-newsletters, and updates from the coaching staff throughout the season. To make a contribution online visit WOMEN S GYMNASTICS FRIENDS AND FAMILY PROGRAM Support Buckeye Women s Gymnastics OhioStateBuckeyes.com 5

6 THE PEOPLE. THE TRADITION. THE EXCELLENCE. THE BALANCE. AUDREY TOLBERT RACHEL ABRAMS COLEEN DEAN MAGGIE DUNN MELANIE SHAFFER ALYSSA MAROHN SARAH MILLER 6