Men's Gymnastics

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April 14, 2008

April 14: Day One PHOTO GALLERY

Heading into the 2008 NCAA Men's Gymnastics Championships this Thursday, April 17 on the campus of Stanford University, Illinois Sports Information Director Kevin Martinez will take fans to the behind the scenes happening of the Illinois gymnastics team as the team prepares for the 2008 national championship competition. Martinez will document through a blog the travels of the team during their stay under the sunny skies of California, and keep fans up-to-date with the moves and events that fill the team's time in Stanford, Calif.

The first edition of the blog documents the team's travels that began at 6 a.m. Monday morning.

Monday, April 14:

If there is one thing that I have picked up from the very beginning of the trip, it is that this team is pretty hilarious and has a number of characters that help keep the mood light and comical. One of those characters would have to be freshman Daniel Ribeiro, who exited the van this morning at the airport with large Dolce & Gabana sunglasses on his face - I'm sure reminiscent of his times in Jersey where he grew up. Needless to say, there was not a person on the team that did not comment on the massive size of the glasses compared to his face, but Ribeiro took the humor with ease and proceeded to wear them with pride.

Another thing you will learn when traveling with the men's gymnastics team is that they rarely take a road trip without having airplane or travel delays, or just outright problems. Earlier this season, they completely missed a flight coming back from Vegas. Then in our trip from Minnesota, we had our flights cancelled and then had to bus all the way to Minneapolis. In the most recent happenings when it comes to air travel this morning, our plane supposedly had a dent in the side of it and it was cause for concern for the airport as they grounded the flight and then proceeded to move all of our party onto the next flight. The team and I joked that perhaps someone had taken the plane for a joy ride the night before as we could have sworn that there was mud flung on each side of the plane (a part of the story added by senior Jon Drollinger) - well not visually evident per say - but it was surely something that no one had ever heard of as grounding a flight from taking off. However, well put by senior Wes Haagensen, he was not going to travel on a dented plane.

Just as I said that this team has a number of characters, the ring leader of sorts, senior Michael Boyer, interrupted my writings of this blog to inform that he had just tied a personal best of two, 2 1/2 backs on floor during his warm-up at Maples Pavilion at 6:08 p.m. PT. In terms that I could understand, and perhaps the general gymnastics audience, that is 900 degrees of twisting. He also added, that he had Quiznos for lunch, a medium Italian sub to be exact. It also was recorded that he felt it aided in him tying his personal best. I will say you should check out the photo gallery above, as there is a perfect picture of Boyer showing off his guns after achieving the feat.

Well, I could go on-and-on about this team, but I will leave you with a final note before we head to dinner after a brief warm-up at Maples Pavilion this afternoon - which is well documented in the photo gallery above.

As I said before, the characters on this team continued to show their true colors as I had the pleasure of riding in the van with junior Chris Lung and sophomore Andres Saavedra on the way to the hotel. Well, there is no shortage of Spanish radio stations in California, but we finally stumbled upon a great old jock jams station when both Lung and Saavedra in unison broke out into dance, almost as if they had choreographed this moment ahead of time. I will definitely say that if gymnastics doesn't work out for these two, then dancing could be in the future.

Not to mention, Lung was an exact look alike of "Men In Black" in his sleek black suit that he traveled in for the trip. On that same note, the pinstripes seems to be the fashion choice of the team this year, as I think I counted six guys with some version of that type of suit for the travel attire this morning. We were definitely a well dressed team, if I don't say so myself.

I think that is it for now, as I will conclude this edition of the blog and get back to snapping pictures of this team in action on preparation day one on the campus of Stanford University and the Maples Pavilion.

Until next time fans,

Kevin Martinez - A.K.A:KMART