A Smile and a Laugh
April 01, 2011 09:04 AM | General
MORGANTOWN, W. Va. - West Virginia gymnasts Amy Bieski and Hope Sloanhoffer look at each other for five seconds before bursting into laughter, overcome not only by the question posed, but also by the ease of the answer.
“Amy is not a morning person,” Sloanhoffer exclaimed when asked to recall a funny story about Bieski.
“I’m not a morning person at all,” Bieski concurred with a sheepish grin. “I also keep to myself when we travel and rescue all of the little bugs.”
“All of the little bugs,” Sloanhoffer interrupted. “There can be a huge, disgusting centipede on the ground, and everyone else will want to run away, but not Amy. She will come over screaming, scoop it up and save it.”
“They’re living creatures,” Bieski reminded.
“She’s our mother nature in the gym,” Sloanhoffer concluded.
Over the last four years, Bieski has been called many things in the gym, the least of which is “mother nature.” A senior staring down her 52nd career meet, the Nanticoke, Pa., native has been the glue that has held the Mountaineer program together since 2008. A fresh talent out of Northeast Gymnastics, she found an immediate role as one of the squad’s two all-arounders. Since her first meet, a 38.95 effort at the Cancun Classic that earned her East Atlantic Gymnastics League (EAGL) Rookie of the Week honors, Bieski has seen action as an all-arounder in 47 contests, scored at least two weekly league honors a season, including three gymnast of the week awards this year, and earned 17 career all-EAGL honors.
Most recently, she was named the EAGL Gymnast and Outstanding Senior of the Year and won the league’s uneven bars title outright at the 2011 championship on March 19 with a 9.825 score. Bieski was the fourth Mountaineer since the league’s inception in 1996 to win both honors in one season.
“I think this season has gone well,” said Bieski, shying away from speaking about her own accomplishments and instead focusing on the team’s journey. “We have accomplished a lot of good things. We definitely still have room for improvement if we want to have a shot at going to nationals. You can’t just be mediocre.
“We have not been up and down this year. Last year, we could have a great meet, then a really bad one. We’ve been pretty consistent, and that should help us. Consistency is what will help us get to the national championship. We just have to hit every event.”
Helping the team maintain its new-found stability, Sloanhoffer, a freshman out of Cornwall, N.Y., has been the poster child for consistent gymnastics. A six-time EAGL Rookie of the Week and three-time EAGL Specialist of the Week honoree, she has scored 9.8 or better in 29 of 36 routines, all on vault, beam and floor.
Sloanhoffer’s introduction to collegiate gymnastics was loud and furious. Competing in the same venue that Bieski made her Mountaineer career debut, she anchored WVU’s vault lineup against then-No. 13 Missouri at the Cancun Classic on Jan. 7 and scored 9.925, becoming the first freshman since 2009 to score 9.9 or better in any event. She also added scores of 9.825 and 9.85 on beam and floor, respectively, for good measure.
Clearly, the transition for club to collegiate gymnastics did not faze the freshman too much.
“It’s been a great year so far and so much fun,” the Gymnastics Revolution alum said. “Honestly, it’s been everything I was hoping for, and more. I have been able to compete in every meet, and the team has done well.
“I didn’t know what to expect this year because I was the only person on my club’s level 10 team, and when I came to WVU, I had 17 instant teammates! That’s been awesome.”
Competing for a team has been one of the biggest adjustments Sloanhoffer has had to undertake this season. No longer contending just for herself, she understands that her teammates rely on her strong scores.
Bieski understands this concept all too well.
“There’s that fine line where you can’t put too much pressure on yourself, but also if three people fall before you, you tend to think, ‘oh no! What am I going to do?’,” Bieski, ranked No. 2 on the program’s all-time career points list with 1,940.6 points, said. “I think you just have to be calm. There’s a reason your coaches put you in lineup – they trust you. As a gymnast, you always have to believe in yourself and believe in your teammates.”
“I just try to do every routine the same as always,” Sloanhoffer added. “Even if five gymnasts hit before me, or if there’s a fall or two, I try to make every routine the same, whether it is a practice or a meet. I hope if I do that, I will hit. If you have the mindset that it’s just another routine, you will stay calm, hit and be fine.”
Both gymnasts will need to be on top of their game this weekend, as the Mountaineers, seeded sixth, compete at the 2011 NCAA Southeast Regional Championships on Saturday, April 2, at Stegeman Coliseum, in Athens, Ga. The last team to qualify in to a regional which features No. 6-ranked UCLA, No. 8 Georgia and No. 18 LSU, the Mountaineers have a tall task before them – they must finish in the top two in order to move on to the national championships.
“That’s always the goal – to qualify for nationals as a team,” Bieski explained. “Anything can happen. We can score 49.0 on every event, and I feel like beam will determine the outcome of this meet for each team. Usually, whichever team stays on beam wins the meet.”
The Mountaineers, victims of 47.0-plus showings on beam and bars at the EAGL Championship, open the regional meet on vault, one of their strongest events, and close on floor. The squad won both events at the league meet two weeks ago.
“I’m so glad we can start and end on strong events,” Bieski conceded. “I think we’ll have good momentum going into beam.”
Gymnasts also have the opportunity to advance to the national championships as an individual qualifier. Event winners and the top two all-arounders not associated with an advancing team will earn invites to the NCAA meet.
Though Bieski and Sloanhoffer want to move on to the next meet with their teammates, each knows that she also has an outside shot of qualifying as an individual. Bieski is nationally ranked No. 38 in the all-around, while Sloanhoffer is ranked No. 17, No. 37 and No. 48 on beam, vault and floor.
For Bieski, this is her last shot at collegiate gymnastics’ biggest stage.
“I know it’s my last regional, and I know it could be my last meet, and I’m OK with it,” she said thoughtfully. “I just want to end my career on a good note.
“I would love for the team to qualify for nationals, but if we don’t go as a team, my best shot is to qualify as an all-arounder and that means I have to hit four-for-four and score well. Anything can happen. Either way, I have had a really good career, and I don’t have any regrets.”
Sloanhoffer considers herself lucky to have been teammates with Bieski, even if just for one season.
“Amy is smiling all of the time, no matter what,” she said. “She was not sure if she would compete against Florida, yet she was in the training room, doing exercises and reassuring all of us that it was going to be fine. And smiling! Sure enough, everything worked out fine.
“Losing Amy next year is going to be hard.”
Bieski is quick to cut Sloanhoffer off, reassuring her that they have at least one more meet together and a journey they have yet to complete.
Happy to focus on this weekend’s regional, the duo return to their lighthearted chatter. Before they return to Cary Gym to resume their training, they both take a second to ponder their similarities. Just like the previous questions, the answers come quickly.
“I think we’re both care-free,” Bieski said. “We laugh a lot. Well, Hope laughs, I smile.”
“I think we’re both really relaxed,” Sloanhoffer agreed. “We just let it happen. We don’t stress over every little thing.”
Except bugs, in Bieski’s case. Aside from saving every ant, spider, centipede and butterfly, Bieski, and Sloanhoffer appear confident and ready to help the Mountaineers in their quest for a national bid.
“Amy is not a morning person,” Sloanhoffer exclaimed when asked to recall a funny story about Bieski.
“I’m not a morning person at all,” Bieski concurred with a sheepish grin. “I also keep to myself when we travel and rescue all of the little bugs.”
“All of the little bugs,” Sloanhoffer interrupted. “There can be a huge, disgusting centipede on the ground, and everyone else will want to run away, but not Amy. She will come over screaming, scoop it up and save it.”
“They’re living creatures,” Bieski reminded.
“She’s our mother nature in the gym,” Sloanhoffer concluded.
Over the last four years, Bieski has been called many things in the gym, the least of which is “mother nature.” A senior staring down her 52nd career meet, the Nanticoke, Pa., native has been the glue that has held the Mountaineer program together since 2008. A fresh talent out of Northeast Gymnastics, she found an immediate role as one of the squad’s two all-arounders. Since her first meet, a 38.95 effort at the Cancun Classic that earned her East Atlantic Gymnastics League (EAGL) Rookie of the Week honors, Bieski has seen action as an all-arounder in 47 contests, scored at least two weekly league honors a season, including three gymnast of the week awards this year, and earned 17 career all-EAGL honors.
Most recently, she was named the EAGL Gymnast and Outstanding Senior of the Year and won the league’s uneven bars title outright at the 2011 championship on March 19 with a 9.825 score. Bieski was the fourth Mountaineer since the league’s inception in 1996 to win both honors in one season.
“I think this season has gone well,” said Bieski, shying away from speaking about her own accomplishments and instead focusing on the team’s journey. “We have accomplished a lot of good things. We definitely still have room for improvement if we want to have a shot at going to nationals. You can’t just be mediocre.
“We have not been up and down this year. Last year, we could have a great meet, then a really bad one. We’ve been pretty consistent, and that should help us. Consistency is what will help us get to the national championship. We just have to hit every event.”
Helping the team maintain its new-found stability, Sloanhoffer, a freshman out of Cornwall, N.Y., has been the poster child for consistent gymnastics. A six-time EAGL Rookie of the Week and three-time EAGL Specialist of the Week honoree, she has scored 9.8 or better in 29 of 36 routines, all on vault, beam and floor.
Sloanhoffer’s introduction to collegiate gymnastics was loud and furious. Competing in the same venue that Bieski made her Mountaineer career debut, she anchored WVU’s vault lineup against then-No. 13 Missouri at the Cancun Classic on Jan. 7 and scored 9.925, becoming the first freshman since 2009 to score 9.9 or better in any event. She also added scores of 9.825 and 9.85 on beam and floor, respectively, for good measure.
Clearly, the transition for club to collegiate gymnastics did not faze the freshman too much.
“It’s been a great year so far and so much fun,” the Gymnastics Revolution alum said. “Honestly, it’s been everything I was hoping for, and more. I have been able to compete in every meet, and the team has done well.
“I didn’t know what to expect this year because I was the only person on my club’s level 10 team, and when I came to WVU, I had 17 instant teammates! That’s been awesome.”
Competing for a team has been one of the biggest adjustments Sloanhoffer has had to undertake this season. No longer contending just for herself, she understands that her teammates rely on her strong scores.
Bieski understands this concept all too well.
“There’s that fine line where you can’t put too much pressure on yourself, but also if three people fall before you, you tend to think, ‘oh no! What am I going to do?’,” Bieski, ranked No. 2 on the program’s all-time career points list with 1,940.6 points, said. “I think you just have to be calm. There’s a reason your coaches put you in lineup – they trust you. As a gymnast, you always have to believe in yourself and believe in your teammates.”
“I just try to do every routine the same as always,” Sloanhoffer added. “Even if five gymnasts hit before me, or if there’s a fall or two, I try to make every routine the same, whether it is a practice or a meet. I hope if I do that, I will hit. If you have the mindset that it’s just another routine, you will stay calm, hit and be fine.”
Both gymnasts will need to be on top of their game this weekend, as the Mountaineers, seeded sixth, compete at the 2011 NCAA Southeast Regional Championships on Saturday, April 2, at Stegeman Coliseum, in Athens, Ga. The last team to qualify in to a regional which features No. 6-ranked UCLA, No. 8 Georgia and No. 18 LSU, the Mountaineers have a tall task before them – they must finish in the top two in order to move on to the national championships.
“That’s always the goal – to qualify for nationals as a team,” Bieski explained. “Anything can happen. We can score 49.0 on every event, and I feel like beam will determine the outcome of this meet for each team. Usually, whichever team stays on beam wins the meet.”
The Mountaineers, victims of 47.0-plus showings on beam and bars at the EAGL Championship, open the regional meet on vault, one of their strongest events, and close on floor. The squad won both events at the league meet two weeks ago.
“I’m so glad we can start and end on strong events,” Bieski conceded. “I think we’ll have good momentum going into beam.”
Gymnasts also have the opportunity to advance to the national championships as an individual qualifier. Event winners and the top two all-arounders not associated with an advancing team will earn invites to the NCAA meet.
Though Bieski and Sloanhoffer want to move on to the next meet with their teammates, each knows that she also has an outside shot of qualifying as an individual. Bieski is nationally ranked No. 38 in the all-around, while Sloanhoffer is ranked No. 17, No. 37 and No. 48 on beam, vault and floor.
For Bieski, this is her last shot at collegiate gymnastics’ biggest stage.
“I know it’s my last regional, and I know it could be my last meet, and I’m OK with it,” she said thoughtfully. “I just want to end my career on a good note.
“I would love for the team to qualify for nationals, but if we don’t go as a team, my best shot is to qualify as an all-arounder and that means I have to hit four-for-four and score well. Anything can happen. Either way, I have had a really good career, and I don’t have any regrets.”
Sloanhoffer considers herself lucky to have been teammates with Bieski, even if just for one season.
“Amy is smiling all of the time, no matter what,” she said. “She was not sure if she would compete against Florida, yet she was in the training room, doing exercises and reassuring all of us that it was going to be fine. And smiling! Sure enough, everything worked out fine.
“Losing Amy next year is going to be hard.”
Bieski is quick to cut Sloanhoffer off, reassuring her that they have at least one more meet together and a journey they have yet to complete.
Happy to focus on this weekend’s regional, the duo return to their lighthearted chatter. Before they return to Cary Gym to resume their training, they both take a second to ponder their similarities. Just like the previous questions, the answers come quickly.
“I think we’re both care-free,” Bieski said. “We laugh a lot. Well, Hope laughs, I smile.”
“I think we’re both really relaxed,” Sloanhoffer agreed. “We just let it happen. We don’t stress over every little thing.”
Except bugs, in Bieski’s case. Aside from saving every ant, spider, centipede and butterfly, Bieski, and Sloanhoffer appear confident and ready to help the Mountaineers in their quest for a national bid.
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