Arlotta leads deep gymnastics squad into new season

Depth and talent – two words that have escaped Pitt women’s gymnastics in recent years. Now,… Depth and talent – two words that have escaped Pitt women’s gymnastics in recent years. Now, both have made their way to the forefront.

With a 2005-06 roster of 21 gymnasts, including four returning All-East Atlantic Gymnastics League honorees and a brand new training facility, head coach Debbie Yohman is excited for the upcoming season.

She’s also looking forward to fielding a competitive team for every meet.

“What we’ve got to do, that we didn’t do last year, is go out and make this group of kids, including eight new freshmen, understand every meet is important,” she told PittsburghPanthers.com.

“You cannot wait until the end of the year to get there!”

Helping her lead the team into the new season are co-captains Andrea Arlotta and April Pearson.

Arlotta, a junior from Cincinnati, earned three All-EAGL first-team honors last year in the all-around, uneven bars and floor exercise.

She’ll resume action in all three events for the Panthers, as well as spend some time on the vault after setting a career-high 9.875 in the event last season in a meet against Ohio State.

Pearson, a senior from Jacksonville, Fla., competed in the first event last year, scoring a season-high 9.5 on the floor exercise, but a foot injury forced her to miss the remainder of the season.

Joining Arlotta on vault is Brittany Baldwin. The two both earned second-team All-EAGL honors on vault last season. Amanda Rushton and Jessica Garber will contribute on vault, too.

“We have some upperclassmen back in the lineup and some added vaults from our freshmen that should really help us,” Yohman said on PittsburghPanthers.com. “Our goal, besides having depth to the lineup this year is to have all 10.0 vaults.

“That’s what the coaches are pushing for and the team is pushing for.”

On the uneven parallel bars, the Panthers return all competitors but one. Arlotta and Samantha DeBone – who earned second-team All-EAGL honors – will head the starting lineup, while Robyn Marszalek and Lindsay Swan compete behind them.

“I think with the people we have back and the people we’ve added to the roster, we have plenty of competitors on bars,” Yohman said on PittsburghPanthers.com. “We’ve just got to put it all together.”

With former team leader and NCAA qualifier Leila Tait lost to graduation, a number of Panthers will look to step into the balance-beam lineup.

DeBone leads the team in the event with an average of 9.590 and will lead two sophomores, Cassie Minick and Kaitlin Harrison, early on in the beam competitions.

“With more gymnasts training on beam than any other event, the pressure to hit and make the competitive lineup will help our squad mature very early,” Yohman told PittsburghPanthers.com. “We’ve also got some different difficulty this year, which I know the judges and fans will like seeing.

“So it should be an exciting event for us.”

Pitt’s strongest event, floor exercise, returns all its competitors from last season with Arlotta leading the squad again.

Garber will contribute as a specialist, while Nicole Drane and Jennifer Jones will also see some time after setting career highs of 9.775 and 9.725, respectively, last season for the Panthers.

“Our kids have to train very hard to be a floor competitor for Pitt,” Yohman said on PittsburghPanthers.com. “The expectations have become even higher in the past couple of years.”

A number of gymnasts will compete in the all-around meet for Pitt, including two EAGL 2005 gymnasts of the week, Arlotta and DeBone.

Arlotta and DeBone each cracked the 39.0 mark in 2005 with a team-high 39.250 for Arlotta and a 39.0 by DeBone. Arlotta averaged 38.448 in the all-around for the Panthers last season.

Eight newcomers to the Panthers’ lineup will also see time on the mat throughout the year. With the new facilities in place, Yohman believes the talent level of incoming freshmen will continue grow.

“Now that we have a facility that is competitive with anybody’s in the country, we have kids that are very talented gymnasts, and who train at a very high level, beginning to look at us,” Yohman told PittsburghPanthers.com.

“They see a facility where they will be able to come and thrive.”

The new season gets underway for the team Saturday, when they travel to East Lansing, Mich., for a meet against host Michigan State and Western Michigan.