Vicki Chliszczyk has been named the Head Coach at Towson, replacing Dick Filbert, who retired. Chliszczyk has been an assistant for the past five season at Maryland and is a native of Canada, where she competed in gymanstics. She is just the fourth Head Coach in the 43 year history of the program. The full Towson release follows below.
DU has hired Jay Hogue as an assistant. Hogue has been coaching at Broadway Gymnastics in Florida, and was a previous long-time staff member at Orlando Metro. He replaces Nilson Savage.
Link: DU Release
UCLA's Vanessa Zamarripa qualified to the VISA (US) Championships with her performance at the second elite qualifier held at Bieger's this weekend. She won her optional session and the compulsary section. Several incoming recruits and NCAA athletes were in action this weekend.
2011 Michigan commit Annettte Miele won this session and posted a VISA Championships qualifying score. LSU incoming frosh Gabrielle Swart and 2011 Michigan committ Morgan Steigerwalt competed in this session.
Incoming Minnesota transfer Justine Cherwink competed in this session.
Session 3 included Zamarripa and former Arkansas athlete Casey Jo Magee.
Conference re-alignment is shaking up the NCAA, driven by revenue sports like football, TV contracts and of course, money. So far, schools with gymnastics programs have already been affected. Nebraska has proposed a move to the Big 10 and Boise State is heading to the WAC. Other schools may also be changing conferences, so stay tuned to the changes this summer.
See this local Omaha station and their quote from NU Head Coach Dan Kendig. Link.
Gymnastics has the highest school average APR (Academic Progress Rate) among all Men's NCAA sports, according to a report released by the NCAA. Men's teams averaged 979. 925 is the minimum before penalties begin to be considered at any given school. Gymnastics is tied for third at 985 among Women's sports with Crew, with Field Hockey and Lacrosse leading the way. Three men's squads achieved APRs of 1000 (perfect), while 14 women's programs hit that mark. Only one team has failed to hit the 925 hurdle, but no penalties have been assessed.
Link: NCAA
Justine Cherwink will reportedly transfer to Minnesota for the 2010-2011, according to the Gopher Booster club website. Cherwink has been training at Denton Gymnastics while attending North Texas State, after graduating early from high school. At the 2010 L10 Nationals, in the Senior B division, she placed 31st AA, 7th (t) on VT and 8th(t) on FX. She also recently competed at the Elite Qualifier in Arizona, posting a solid 14.15 on a 5.3 start value (Yurchenko 1 1/2) vault.
Link: Booster Club
An elite qualifier was held at ASU this past weekend, and several uncommitted recruitables were in action. Also competing was Casey Jo Magee, formerly of Arkansas and representing NAAG at this meet.
Link: Results
Chelsea Tang has committed to Oregon State, according to a local news broadcast. Tang is a L10 who trains at the National Academy of Artistic Gymnastics (NAAG) just down I-5 from Corvallis. At the 2010 L10 Nationals she claimed the UB title title in the Senior B division, and placed 36th AA. As a Jr. D in 2009, she placed 37th AA.
Link: YouTube.com Channel
Iowa signed Javier Balboa González of Mexico, according to a school release. He will transfer for next season from the Instituto Technologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey. He finished second AA at the 2010 Mexican National Championship. He was also the 2010 national champion on VT and PB. His sister Ana competes for Minnesota.
Link: Release