Pitt looks to improve this season

This year’s Pitt gymnastics team will look to its senior class to provide the leadership… This year’s Pitt gymnastics team will look to its senior class to provide the leadership needed to ensure improvement.

The team returns nine letter-winners and will be looking to finish higher than last year’s 7-19 mark. Top returning letter-winners include seniors Alyse Zeffiro, Diandra O’Connor, and Erika Goldberg.

Zeffiro was named to the All-EAGL First Team for balance beam and floor exercises, as well as the All-EAGL Second Team for the vault. She also set a school record last year, posting a 9.95 in the floor exercise.

O’Connor boasted a 38.785 average in the all-around, while Goldberg averaged a 9.779 on the floor exercise.

Despite the individual accolades, head coach Debbie Yohman says that it is up to the senior class as a whole, not any one individual, to set the tone and lead by example.

Yohman said that, right now, she is cautiously optimistic about the team’s chances.

“If we can avoid some of the pitfalls that snagged us up last year, we’ll be fine,” Yohman said. “Bars are much better than they were last year, but vaulting is maybe a little questionable. We were worried about floor, but it looked good in our intersquad meet last week.”

Yohman’s biggest concern is with consistency in the team’s depth. She hesitantly described the freshmen gymnasts as immature, but said that it was more of a matter of them buying into the system.

“The veterans have made the changes that they’ve needed to make,” Yohman said. “The freshmen have been working very hard, but need to work on being more consistent. The senior class leads this team. It is a large and talented group. They’ve had many ups and downs and are finally where they need to be.”

Yohman has her team performing not only in the gym, but in the classroom as well. Eight gymnasts earned NACGC/W Scholastic All-America Honors. And the team’s 3.45 GPA is ranked 13th in the nation and No. 1 on Pitt’s campus. Yohman said that it is no coincidence that her team performed so well scholastically.

“Strong students are what we recruit,” Yohman said.

The team has been putting in 20 hours per week for the last four full months. And because of the physical demands, gymnasts spend a lot of time in the training room going through rehab.

“Since way back in September, we’ve been putting in our hours,” Yohman said. “We’re excited to see how we do, and we’re excited about our home schedule.”

The gymnastics team opens its season this Saturday at Ohio State, where the Panthers will take on the Buckeyes and the Maryland Terrapins in a three-team competition.