Two Earn All-America Honors at NCAA Championships

April 15, 2016

Chiarelli, Artz, Brown photo

» Nicole Artz earned second team All-America honors.
» Artz finished ninth in the all-around during the afternoon session.
» Talia Chiarelli performed a rare high-level tucked full in skill on floor.

Site: Fort Worth, Texas (Fort Worth Convention Center)
Event: NCAA Championships
U-M Team Finish: No team score
Next U-M Event: Season Complete

FORT WORTH, Texas -- The University of Michigan women's gymnastics team had three individuals competing at the 2016 NCAA Championships on Friday (April 15) at the Fort Worth Convention Center, with junior Nicole Artz receiving second team All-America honors on floor.

In the afternoon session Artz and junior Talia Chiarelli competed, while sophomore Brianna Brown is in the evening session. Artz, an elementary education and language arts major, finished tied for sixth on floor to give her All-America honors for the third straight season. She has six career All-America honors after adding one this season.

"I had four good routines," said Artz. "I'm happy, it could have gone better, but I'm happy with how it went. I just went out there and tried to have fun today with nothing on the line for me. I felt no pressure and just had fun doing what I love to do."

Session I

After a bye in the first rotation, Artz started the day out on bars, an event where she had scored 9.900 or better seven times on the year. She nailed her release move and had solid handstands. Her double layout dismount got big air coming off the high bar, also creating big distance. As she came down, she could not quite hold on to the stuck landing, taking a small step forward. Judges gave her a 9.8125.

In her second event, Artz looked brilliant on beam. She put together a clean routine, executing her front aerial to a back handspring with smooth precision and hitting on her rudi dismount she added back in to close her routine. Her efforts earned her a 9.850 and a tie for 13th place in the event.

Right after Artz finished up on beam, her classmate and roommate Chiarelii did her floor routine. Chiarelli threw caution to the wind as an individual performer and added a new third pass to her floor routine, a mammoth tucked full in. An extremely difficult skill, the tucked full in gave her two "E" value passes in her routine as she also led off with a double arabian.

"I worked on it for the two weeks leading up to the meet," said Chiarelli. "It was something I decided to pull out for this meet. There was no team aspect on the line so why not try it."

She could not quite get her landing on the tucked full in but still drew loud cheers from the crowd at the convention center, whose eyes were glued to her being the last to compete in the third rotation. She ended up with a 9.7125.

When asked if she would add the tucked full in to her regular routine for next year Chiarelli replied, "Honestly, it is pretty unsustainable, but it was pretty cool to do once."

Artz headed to floor next, which has been a bread and butter event for her all season long. She continued to hit just like she had all day long. She came through with a 9.875 and a loud round of applause from the Michigan cheering section, mixed with claps from the other team's fans.

Closing out the day on vault, Artz posted a score that sounded more like a Boeing Aircraft type than a gymnastics score. Her 9.7875 gave her an all-around total of 39.325 to rank ninth in the session.

Session II

To come

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