Tar Heels Embark On 2014 Season

January 10, 2014 | Women's Gymnastics

By: UNC Athletic Communications

North Carolina enters the 2014 season seeking a return to the top of the East Atlantic Gymnastics League. The Tar Heels have won the league title in four of the last nine seasons, and are looking for their first title since 2011. To win the league, the Tar Heels will lean on a group of student-athletes who have faced adversity throughout their careers and are now in position to have their best seasons.

Seniors Meredith Magjuka and Michelle Ikoma, along with junior Kristin Aloi, will serve as team captains. All three have missed at least one season with an injury. Magjuka redshirted her freshman season with a back injury, Ikoma missed the 2011 season with an Achilles' tear and Aloi missed the 2013 campaign with an foot injury. Magjuka is a consistent performer and will lead off UNC's balance beam squad. Ikoma is a fiery leader who is training to be an all-arounder this year. And Aloi, who is in UNC's School of Pharmacy after graduating early last year, could also be one of the team's top all-arounders.

Acacia Cosentino also missed the 2013 season with a foot injury that occurred just days prior to the first meet of the year. After redshirting last year, her return will certainly help the Tar Heels who have just 12 athletes on the team. Emily Cornwell, who competed in each of the last three seasons, will serve as a student assistant coach in her final season.

Junior Haley Watts was one of the team's top performers last year and posted all-around scores of 39.000 or higher in five meets, including the NCAA Morgantown Regional. The final member of the junior class is Janell Sargent, a beam specialist who has produced some of the best scores in school history.

The sophomore class includes Lexi Cappalli, Josselyn Mackey and Sarah Peterson. Cappalli had several bright moments last year competing primarily on vault, uneven bars and floor exercise. Mackey was in every balance beam lineup a year ago and was a regular in the vault and uneven bars rotations. Peterson came on strong and was always in the vault and floor lineups. The progression of the sophomore class will go a long was in determining the team's fortunes.

Carolina welcomes three freshmen, including a pair of out-of-state student-athletes in Megan Marenghi of Plano, Texas, and Christina Pheil of St. Petersburg, Fla. Margaret Brown joined the team as a walk-on from Waxhaw, N.C. All three will be counted on to contribute immediately with Marenghi competing on uneven bars and balance beam and Pheil challenging in the all-around. Brown will compete for the vault and floor lineup.

With preseason training complete, head coach Derek Galvin sat down for a question and answer session with GoHeels.com. Galvin, the only NCAA gymnastics coach in UNC history, is entering his 33rd season.

GoHeels.com: You lost a pair of quality performers last year in Elizabeth Durkac and Maura Masatsugu. How will they be replaced and what do you expect from this season class?
Galvin: Elizabeth and Maura were great competitors for us. Elizabeth was such a consistent performer over her career and it was great for her, and for our team, when she was named the EAGL Gymnast of the Year at the league championships in Chapel Hill. She will be difficult to replace, but we have several people who can step up. Maura Masatsugu was a great competitor and a top performer in our beam lineup.

The senior class will be led by Meredith Magjuka and Michelle Ikoma. Both come back with quite a bit of experience. They competed significantly for us last year on the balance beam and floor exercise lineup and both can help us in other events as well.

I believe both have improved this year. Michelle has improved significantly and she is looking really strong on all four events.

Meredith is looking strong on floor exercise and balance beam. We've back off on her vaulting a little because of an irritation in her elbow. We don't want to jeopardize her abilities in the other events.
Kristin Aloi will be back this year after injuring her foot and sitting out last year while recovering. She's in graduate school in Pharmacy after finishing up her psychology degree in three years. Kristin is balancing graduate school and team training. She's done well with that, but it's a big challenge just in terms of time commitment and graduate school is more demanding. She's done well in the preseason on all four events.

All three of those ladies will serve as our captains.

GoHeels.com: You also return Acacia Cosentino to the lineup this year and she will be entering her fourth year in Chapel Hill. What are your expectations for her?
Galvin: We're excited to have her back competing after injuring her Achilles' last year. She's in her fourth year on the team, but has two years of eligibility remaining. She's performed well on bars in the preseason and she's coming along on floor. Floor will be more of a work in progress because of the foot injury. We're building her tumbling back up, and she has trained well and is improving.

GoHeels.com: Last season, Haley Watts took the next step forward in her progression and became one of your top all-arounders along with Durkac. Are you expecting a similar progression this year?
Galvin: Haley did a very good job for us last year and we're believe she will again be a consistent performer. We are taking care of an ankle issue and we are changing her tumbling a little bit, but she's been looking really good on all four events. We may take it easy with her at the start of the season, especially on vault, but she is our top returning all-arounder.

GoHeels.com: Gymnastics is such an interesting sport with varied skills required at each apparatus. Starting with vault, let's discuss the four events and your thoughts on the 2014 squad.
Galvin on Vault: Vault is our event with the least amount of depth. Our top returning vaulters are Haley and Michelle. Lexi, Josselyn and Sarah were also in the lineup last year and will compete for a starting spot again. Beyond that, Christina, Kristin and Margaret will be in the mix for the final spots. We only have eight student-athletes available for this event so that's going to put a premium on staying healthy.

I've been impressed with Michelle's vaulting in preseason. She's performing better at this point than she was at the end of last season. Lexi has also shown improvement in each of the last few weeks.
We have four solid vaulters and we need six. We have to find two more ladies to step up and make the lineup.

Galvin on Uneven Bars: We're replacing Elizabeth on that event and she was so consistent for us a year ago. Megan Marenghi of the freshman class has the strongest bar routine and Christina Pheil's bar routine is coming along.

From the sophomore class, all three could make the bar lineup. The strongest in preseason has been Lexi. Sarah missed some time in preseason, but she came back well and we're expecting her to compete for the lineup. Haley and Acacia both have competed for us in the past and I expected them to be a part of the lineup. Kristin is as strong on bars as she has been at any point of her career.

Galvin on Balance Beam: Balance beam is where we have the most depth. We lost two solid contributors in Elizabeth and Maura, but with our depth, we're now looking for the six most consistent performers to step up. Among the seniors, Meredith was our leadoff person last year and we expect her to do the same this year. Michelle has made strong progress on beam.

Janell is looking stronger than she did last year and she specializes in beam. Her dismount is stronger this year and we feel she has the potential to score in the 9.9 or above range.

In the freshman class, Megan has similar scoring potential as Janell and she should make the beam lineup. Christina has a good chance along with all three sophomores - Josselyn, Sarah and Lexi

Galvin on Floor: We have a wide variety of musical styles and we have some unique routines. That is one of the things that assistant coach Amy Smith brings to our team. She's such a creative choreographer and our routines this year will be very entertaining. They are very unique with a very broad range of music.

Michelle and Meredith have been looking very good in preseason and we expect both of them to be in the lineup. We are working on some new tumbling passes with Haley to minimize the stress on her ankle, but we expect her to be in the lineup.

All three sophomores are improved, and if we were putting together a lineup today Christina would be the top freshman in the lineup.

GoHeels.com: Given your lack of depth on vault, what is your overall expectation for this season?
Galvin: We've got fairly good depth on beam and floor. We don't have as much on bars and vault and our level of proficiency doesn't quite match what we have on floor and beam.
In looking at our scoring potential, we need to maximize what we can do in floor, beam and bars, because our scoring potential in vault is not quite as high.

GoHeels.com: How did the schedule set up this season and what meets are you looking forward to?
Galvin: It's always exciting to step into the arena and compete, so we're looking forward to every meet. We start off the season with three of our first four meets in Chapel Hill. It has been several years since that has happened, but we think our fans will enjoy coming to Carmichael early and often. NC State begins the season at our place and then we go back to NC State the following week. We then host back-to-back meets against Maryland and Pittsburgh.

We're especially looking forward to going up to Chicago for the Chicago Style meet. It will be our first time at that meet and it gets us close to home for both Lexi and Michelle. The club that hosts that meet is the one that Lexi competed and this meet give us more visibility in the area.

GoHeels.com: What should fans expect at Carolina home meets?
Galvin: We try to create an atmosphere that is exciting and fun for families to attend. The meet with NC State is always a good competition with lots of enthusiasm in the building. That's also the weekend of our health fair that we host in support of the Lineberger center. We'll have interactive activities on the concourse for children and the Sunday start time is good for families.

If fans in the area will come out to our meets, they will be enjoy a meet filled with high level of gymnastics and family entertainment.