Nicole Artz - A Maize and Blue Legacy

As she steps onto the floor for the first time in her senior year, a rush of adrenaline rushes through her. 4 years has gone by like 1 day, and in the blink of an eye, it will all be over. But in a way, it's just the start. The start of a new season. And on the smaller span of things, the start of a new routine. And that's the way you have to look at it, one step at a time. One breath at a time. The green flag is raised and a deep breath in is all it takes. Nicole Artz is now the captain of the Michigan Gymnastics team.

Full in, stick. Front layout front full, stick. Double pike stick. Perfect. But what's new? The floor exercise has always come easy to Nicole Artz. The floor is in a way, her home. She steps on to the blue carpeted springs, and a new chapter begins. She's not just going through the motions, she's putting on a Cirque De Soulei performance. Nicole even says that when she is on floor, she gets to relax a bit. But the work behind her floor routine has to be done before anything good can happen on the competition floor, let me take you behind the scene's and we will discover what make's Nicole Artz so good on floor.

Years and years of training and still, she uses the same choreographer she used when she was 8. Years and years of training and still, she performs to her music the same way she did 10 years ago. Years and years of training and still, she tumbles with the ease she always has. That's what makes her so good. After all these years of training and consistency, she's able to relax more now. She loves to see her team on the sidelines dancing along and it helps her perform here tumbling with ease and land cleanly. Catch Nicole Artz easing her way through her floor routine this Saturday @ 2 at Michigan State.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more! :)

Photo via The Michigan Daily.

Read More

Feature of the Week: Nicole Artz, Perfect 10!

After a stunning performance in her final first home meet of the year, Nicole Artz proved to us that she's up to some good when she pulled off a perfect 10.0 in yesterday's meet against Illinois. The first meet this year for the big UM in the Crisler Center, and they sure proved to us what they're really worth. Take a look at our standout routine from the meet, obviously, Nicole Artz's floor:

Stunning. Nicole is now tied for the 2nd place ranking on her best event and we can't wait to see what she has in store for next week's meet against Nebraska which is once again, a home meet. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more!! :)

Read More

NCAA Full Access Guide...

College gymnastics is an exiting time of the year. It can be hard, however, to know where to get your scores and live streams from. And that is why I'm here. I'll be providing you with an all you need to know access guide for this season of NCAA gymnastics.

• Team Pages

It never hurt to check out a couple of the team pages. Here are a few to get you started:

Oklahoma: http://www.soonersports.com

LSU: http://www.lsusports.net
Florida: http://floridagators.com
Michigan: http://www.mgoblue.com
Penn State: http://www.gopsusports.com
Georgia: http://www.georgiadogs.com

• Schedules

It is also helpful to know when you're favorite teams are competing. So, here are the overall schedules for this week:

Week 3
Monday, January 16
2:00 ET/11:00 PT -- North Carolina State @ Georgia
Friday, January 20
7:00 ET/4:00 PT -- Arkansas @ Georgia
7:00 ET/4:00 PT -- Auburn @ Kentucky
7:00 ET/4:00 PT -- Ball State, William & Mary @ North Carolina State
7:00 ET/4:00 PT -- Eastern Michigan @ Central Michigan
7:00 ET/4:00 PT -- Florida @ North Carolina
7:00 ET/4:00 PT -- Western Michigan @ Kent State
7:00 ET/4:00 PT -- Minnesota @ Michigan State
7:00 ET/4:00 PT -- UW-La Crosse @ UW-Eau Claire
7:00 ET/4:00 PT -- Winona State @ UW-Oshkosh
7:30 ET/4:30 PT -- Lindenwood @ S.E. Missouri
8:30 ET/5:30 PT -- Alabama @ Missouri
8:30 ET/5:30 PT -- Texas Woman's @ LSU
9:00 ET/6:00 PT -- Boise State, Denver, UIC @ Utah
9:00 ET/6:00 PT -- Utah State @ BYU
9:00 ET/6:00 PT -- Stanford @ Southern Utah
11:00 ET/8:00 PT -- UW-Stout @ Alaska
Saturday, January 21
12:00 ET/9:00 PT -- Rhode Island College @ Ithaca College, Brockport State (,)
12:00 ET/9:00 PT -- Yale @ Pennsylvania (Beauty and the Beast )
2:00 ET/11:00 PT -- UW-Whitewater @ Gustavus Adolphus
3:00 ET/12:00 PT -- Northern Illinois, Seattle Pacific @ Oregon State
3:30 ET/12:30 PT -- Cortland State @ Cornell
4:00 ET/1:00 PT -- Iowa @ Ohio State
4:00 ET/1:00 PT -- Maryland-College Park @ Penn State
4:00 ET/1:00 PT -- Pittsburgh, Southern Conn. @ New Hampshire
4:30 ET/1:30 PT -- Illinois State @ Bowling Green
6:00 ET/3:00 PT -- Iowa State @ Arizona
6:00 ET/3:00 PT -- UC Davis @ Arizona State
7:00 ET/4:00 PT -- Brown, Nebraska, West Chester @ Rutgers
7:00 ET/4:00 PT -- Oklahoma @ West Virginia
8:00 ET/5:00 PT -- Sacramento State @ Air Force
8:00 ET/5:00 PT -- San Jose State, Washington @ California
Sunday, January 22
1:00 ET/10:00 PT -- Ursinus College @ Temple
2:00 ET/11:00 PT -- George Washington @ Towson
2:00 ET/11:00 PT -- Illinois-Champaign @ Michigan

• Rankings

To understand your teams competition, you may want to have access to the rankings. The best link that I know of can be found by clicking here.



That should give you a start of where to find the info for your favorite college gymnastics teams! Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more!

Read More

My Top Three Favorite Moments from 2016

    With a new year in, and the old year out, it's time to reflect on last year's experiences and look forward to the ones to come in the new year. And to celebrate the new year, we're joining you in reflecting upon last year's occurrences. So to do our part, we are sharing with you, our three favorite moments in the gymnastics world from 2016. Counting down from three, in the spirit of the new year (just like they count down from three to see the ball drop) we begin with...


3. Diversity on the Podium

     Often it is teams from the big four that we see standing on the podium in the end. However, this Olympics we had a wide variety of teams on the medal stand in the end. Giulia Steingruber won Switzerland a bronze on the vault. Amy Tinkler from Great Britain won a bronze on floor. Sophie Schemer won a bronze on uneven bars. Other countries were contending in the finals, mixing it up also,  Hong Un Jong of North Korea was in the vault final, as well as Dipa Karmakar of India, Oksana Chusovitina of Uzbekistan, and Shallon Olsen of Canada.

Photo via Getty Images.

2. Brazil Impresses on Home Territory

      With the Olympics being hosted in Brazil, the home team's performance was expected to be slightly better, however, not too much was expected from them. This all changed, after Diego Hypolito performed a nearly perfect floor routine enough to get him a silver medal. Moments later, Hypolito's teammate, Arthur Nory, executed a flawless routine enough to put him in the bronze medal position. Moments later they would realize that the final standings left them with Olympic medals. The moment was moving. Watch below:

 Watch Diego at 3:35
Watch Arthur at 13:37
Watch their reaction at 27:54 but also throughout

Via Youtube Channel Alina Zhym


1. Aly and Simone Dominate All Around Final

     Our favorite moment of this year was when Aly made a comeback for her 2012 Olympic experience and Simone finally got the medal in the all around she deserved. It was such an amazing moment for them and for us to witness.

         

Photo via Getty Images.

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed a joyous and celebratory new year! Stay tuned for more as the NCAA season begins this weekend!! :)

Read More

2016 Bundesliga Final Results

The post Olympic competitions continue and in our next edition of results, we present to you the all around and team final results where Eythora Thorsdottir won the all around and the Stuttgart team won the overall team award. Via The Gymternet we have the results:

All-Around Results

Rank	Athlete	Club	VT	UB	BB	FX	AA
1	Eythora Thorsdottir	Stuttgart	13.800	13.100	13.950	14.100	54.950
2	Kim Bui	Stuttgart	14.050	11.500	13.650	13.800	53.000
3	Isabelle Stingl	Karlsruhe-Söllingen	12.250	12.900	13.150	12.800	51.100
4	Emelie Petz	Stuttgart	13.900	11.100	13.000	13.000	51.000
5	Lisa Schöniger	Chemnitz-Altendorf	12.600	12.450	12.950	12.750	50.750
6	Helene Schäfer	Chemnitz-Altendorf	13.100	12.400	11.700	11.200	48.400
7	Sarah Sonnenschein	Köln	12.850	11.900	11.650	11.950	48.350
8	Elisabeth Wagner	Köln	12.550	10.900	11.000	10.400	44.850
9	Jenna Büttner	Köln	13.000	8.950	8.750	11.100	41.800
10	Leah Griesser	Karlsruhe-Söllingen	——	13.750	12.950	13.600	40.300
	Carina Kröll	Stuttgart	——	13.050	13.300	13.950	40.300
12	Maike Enderle	Karlsruhe-Söllingen	13.950	12.250	12.900	——	39.100
13	Emma Höfele	Karlsruhe-Söllingen	13.500	12.600	——	12.250	38.350
14	Pauline Tratz	Karlsruhe-Söllingen	14.050	——	10.300	13.500	37.850
15	Pauline Schäfer	Chemnitz-Altendorf	14.150	——	14.900	——	29.050
16	Nadja Schulze	Chemnitz-Altendorf	——	13.300	13.100	——	26.400
17	Anuschka Maltzan	Chemnitz-Altendorf	——	10.900	——	11.450	22.350
18	Aiyu Zhu	Köln	——	——	12.100	9.850	21.950
19	Jasmin Haase	Chemnitz-Altendorf	11.950	——	——	9.400	21.350
20	Johanna Deutschmann	Köln	11.650	8.400	——	——	20.050
21	Tabea Alt	Stuttgart	14.250	——	——	——	14.250

Team Final Results

Rank	Club	VT	UB	BB	FX	Total
1	Stuttgart	56.000	48.750	53.900	54.850	213.500
2	Karlsruhe-Söllingen	53.750	51.500	49.300	52.150	206.700
3	Chemnitz-Altendorf	51.800	49.050	52.650	44.800	198.300
4	Köln	50.050	40.150	43.500	43.300	177.000

I would like to apologize for yet another results article. I have been busy and will be returning to normal articles hopefully next week. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more! :)

Read More