2005 GMW at Big Ten Championships -- Postgame Notes
3/26/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Gymnastics
Junior Jenny Deiley picked up her second career Big Ten individual title, sharing the vault crown. Deiley was the 2003 Big Ten uneven bars co-champion.
Junior Becca Clauson picked up her first Big Ten individual title with a share of the floor exercise title. Clauson won her first career floor title at Michgan State last week and followed it with her second career title at the Big Ten Championships.
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| | Ray (left) was named Big Ten co-Gymnast of the Year and Lieberman received Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors. | ||
Michigan won its seventh straight Big Ten title, bettering the conference's previous record. The Wolverines had won six titles in a row from 1992-97 and again from 1999-2004.
Michigan captured its 14th conference title in program history -- the most for any school in the Big Ten. Ohio State is second with five titles, while Minnesota has four and Illinois owns one crown.
Fifth-year senior Elise Ray won her sixth career individual title at the Big Ten Championships, capturing the all-around crown. Previously, Ray had won the all-around, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise in 2004 and the balance beam title in 2002.
Ray concludes her Big Ten career with a trio of Big Ten Championships records. Ray is tied for the most individual titles in a single championships with four, while posting the highest scores on bars (10.0) and in the all-around competition (39.800) in the history of the Big Ten Championships.
Ray has posted 21 scores of 9.900 or better on bars in the last 23 meets -- just two sub-9.900 scores in the last 426 days.
Freshman Katie Lieberman (9.900) and sophomore Lindsey Bruck (9.850) tied career highs on vault.
Head coach Bev Plocki picked up her 150th career Big Ten victory, improving to 306-86 overall and 151-24 against league schools. Plocki also picked up her 13th conference title with the Wolverines. Michigan has won the Big Ten Conference crown in all but three of Plocki's 16 seasons with the Wolverines.
Freshman Katie Lieberman is the eighth Wolverine in conference history to win the Big Ten Freshman of the Year award and the first since Jenny Deiley earned the honor in 2003.
Elise Ray's Big Ten co-Gymnast of the Year award is the first of her career and Michigan's seventh in program history. The last Wolverine to be named the conference's top gymnast was Sarah Cain, who captured her second career Big Ten Gymnast of the Year honor in 2000.
Michigan improved to 10-2 vs. teams in the top 25 with wins over No. 11 Penn State and No. 22 Minnesota.
A number of Michigan gymnastics fans made the trip to Iowa City, setting up camp front and center at Carver-Hawkeye Arena and occupying 12 rows next to the vault runway.
Players Mentioned
