It was a night that featured surprises, goal-setting, sadness, disappointment and, in the end, team unity.
Thursday night at the Huntsman Center on the campus of the University of Utah, the Pioneer gymnasts concluded a season that placed them on the gymnastics map.
There is no more, “Who are they?” or “Why are they here?”, but rather, “This team is good,” and “The team’s better watch out.”
It was more than a 10th place finish for the DU women’s gymnastics team. It was the beginning of a story that is just about to get to its best part.
“I definitely think we proved ourselves. People were doubting us all year. If Denver does it here, we will believe them and we finally did it at nationals and there is really nothing else they can say. I definitely think people will watch out for us now,” said senior Heather Huffaker.
It was the doubt that led many fans to believe that DU would have no chance to defeat Penn State at the NCAA Regionals two weeks ago at Magness Arena. That same doubt helped fuel the Pioneers motivation to defeat the Nitany Lions and advance to the NCAA Championships for the first time since 2001. The victory was by just .025 of a point, but as the saying goes, “a win is a win” and for Denver it was a very well deserved win.
Last season saw the Pioneers miss advancing to the championships by .475 of a point and finishing in fourth in the regionals. In 2005 they finished in third and missed advancing by 1.075 points, the year before another third place finish and missing out by a small margin of .225 and in 2002 they finished just .125 points behind the advancing teams.
When the news of the Pioneers advancing to the NCAA Championships circled across the gymnastics world, people were not exactly waiting to give hugs and high fives. Rather they were waiting to scour DU with criticism and reason why they should not be included in the best meet of the year.
“But in order for me to feel they quote-unquote ‘belong there,’ they’re going to have to hit at nationals and not finish dead-last by two points,” said one gym fan on a chat board at collegegymfans.com.
“But here’s the thing: Denver performed solidly all year at home. Regionals were at home. Any gym fan worth his or her salt is going to be suspicious of that,” said another fan.
The Pioneers were 7-0 at home and 7-7 on the road during the regular season, but that is why they call it “home field advantage.”
The Pioneers came to the NCAA Championships to accomplish two things, a top 10 finish and not count a fall and they did exactly that.
“Completely successful. I can’t be any more proud of them, our goal at the beginning of the year was to be a top 10 program and that was a challenging but achievable goal and we did it,” said Head Coach Melissa Kutcher-Rinehart.
A top 10 finish that they hope will now springboard the team to continuous national success and a super-six finish next season.
“We always talk about how the other teams have the tradition and, I think, we started it and the teams of the future can build from where we are which is top ten,” said Huffaker.
“I think we have a great future ahead of us. We have a lot of experienced athletes returning next year, plus we have four great incoming freshmen, I am really excited about what the potential opportunities are,” said Kutcher-Rinehart.
