University of North Carolina Athletics
GoHeels Exclusive: Tar Heels ready for home opener Friday
January 11, 2018 | Women's Gymnastics, Featured Writers
Entering last season's East Atlantic Gymnastics League (EAGL) championships, the North Carolina gymnastics team's postseason fate was at stake.
The top 36 teams in the country, based on Regional Qualifying Score, advance to the NCAA Regionals each year. So sitting at 33rd heading into the conference meet, UNC was on the bubble.
That, senior Madison Nettles said, caused some additional stress as the Tar Heels competed for the EAGL title. They ultimately finished fourth. But behind six consecutive first-place finishes in the middle of their schedule, they made their first NCAA Regional appearance since 2013 and took fifth at the NCAA Gainesville Regional.
Still, Nettles, now a senior, remembers how nervous she was that the team's early-season struggles might have ruined its postseason aspirations. Thus she's made getting off to a better start a primary goal for the team this season.
"We were so focused on making regionals that we couldn't do what we needed to do at EAGL to win …" said Nettles of last season. "So I think if we can start where we were midseason last year in our first couple of meets, which I think we will, I don't think regionals is going to be a problem."
UNC will start working toward that Friday, when it opens the 2018 season against N.C. State. The dual meet begins at 7 p.m. inside Carmichael Arena.
Here are five other things to know about the team entering the campaign:
Steady leadership
The Tar Heels entered last season with only five returning letter winners. This season, they boast 11, anchored by seniors Kaitlynn Hedelund, Morgan Lane, Nettles and Lauren Weisel.
Lane is the reigning EAGL Gymnast of the Year, having finished the regular season ranked No. 1 in the league in the all-around and on the balance beam. Hedelund and Nettles both received first-team all-conference honors on the vault. Hedelund was second team on the uneven bars.
"This class has been a fun class since the day they arrived …" said Derek Galvin, who is entering his 37th year as UNC's head coach. "All four of them have done a really good job in leading by example, but also vocally and encouraging their teammates."
Sophomores show improvement
Even with such valuable seniors, the amount of success the Tar Heels have as a team will depend on the contributions they receive from their nine sophomores.
As freshmen, sophomores Khazia Hislop and Emma Marchese made significant contributions. Hislop earned first-team All-EAGL honors on the floor exercise, ranking first in the league in that event. She and Marchese were second-team honorees on the balance beam.
Sophomores Alexis Allen, Grace Donaghy and Mikayla Robinson also gained extensive meet experience last season. And Nettles said the class as a whole has made strides over the last year.
"It is like a whole new group of people," Nettles said. "Not that they were resistant at first last year, but when they all come in together and you come from being the top dog at your gym and you come in here and you're a measly little freshman, it's a different atmosphere.
"We asked a lot of them coming back, and they have answered incredibly. I couldn't ask for a better group to be our underclassmen."
Key additions to coaching staff
Following the departures of associate head coach Amy Smith and assistant coach Whitnee Johnson – now the head coach and an assistant coach, respectively, at Utah State – Marie Case Denick and Taylor Spears joined the UNC gymnastics program as assistant coaches in August.
Case Denick, who spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach at Bowling Green State, was a three-time Mid-American Conference Gymnast of the Year at Kent State. She serves as the primary coach on the vault and floor exercise.
Spears mostly concentrates on the balance beam and uneven bars. She won the NCAA individual championship in the former as a senior at Oklahoma in 2014, when the Sooners also captured the NCAA team title. She was a volunteer coach at Oklahoma the last two seasons, helping the Sooners to a pair of NCAA gymnastics championships.
"I think they've both done an exceptional job in tapping into the strengths of each gymnasts in terms of the routine composition …" Galvin said. "They've held the gymnasts to a high standard, which is what every athlete wants. If they want to be their very best, they need people to hold them to a high standard. And Taylor and Marie have done that very effectively."
Stronger, tougher
Galvin and Nettles both praised Case Denick and Spears for their organizational skills, which have been evident in the team's conditioning and practices. This group, Gavlin said, has gone through more preseason conditioning than any other during his tenure.
"We wanted to make this team physically and mentally as strong and as tough as we could," Galvin said. "Gymnastics is a very demanding sport on the body, and it's very demanding mentally. We compete every weekend and gymnasts aren't accustomed to that; it's different in college."
Galvin also said the team is using metrics more than it has in the past.
When the gymnasts practice or compete in an intrasquad meet, Nettles said they receive a score, all of which are tracked, after completing a routine. They're then given an assignment. This process has allowed the gymnasts to have a better understanding of their scores and what they need to improve.
"Even when they're not watching," Nettles said, "I think everybody knows, 'OK, that would have been a tenth there, that would have been a tenth there,' just because they've been ingraining that in our heads all preseason."
A tough slate
Friday's meet against N.C. State, which is ranked No. 21 nationally by the College Gymnastics Association, is the first of several difficult tests on the Tar Heels' schedule.
They face six other teams that are currently ranked. That includes three top-10 opponents in No. 5 Michigan, No. 9 Alabama and No. 10 Arizona. UNC also visits Oklahoma, the two-time defending national champion.
"To open at home with N.C. State, our biggest rival, that's going to be a great competition," Galvin said. "They're ranked ahead of us, but whenever we compete against N.C. State, rankings don't mean anything; it's anybody's game. So we're excited about that.
"We've got some really strong away meets this year with top teams. It's going to be a really exciting year for Carolina gymnastics."
Players Mentioned
