The road to the Super Six ends in Tuscaloosa this year as the Crimson Tide hosts the NCAA Championships for the third time since 1991. In preparation for the best of the best coming to Coleman Coliseum, former Alabama All-American Lexa Evans is getting the lowdown on last year's top-15, starting with No. 15 Minnesota and finishing up with defending champion UCLA. Week-by-week, get ready to know the competition.

Minnesota

After missing the on-ramp to the 2001 National Championship by just .150, the University of Minnesota gymnastics team has the kind of desire that comes from facing the bumps in the road of success head on.

"Our team came home (from regionals) and was so inspired by this," said Minnesota's Co-Head Coach Jim Stephenson. His wife and Minnesota's other head coach, Meg Stephenson, agreed. "The loss just really worked in our favor last year. We believe success breeds complacency, while failure makes you work harder."

The 2002 Golden Gophers have a team of gymnasts hungry for a trip to the championships, but none more so than senior All-American Mary Anne Kelley who got a taste last year as an individual qualifier. The Barrington, Ill. native earned a trip to Athens and took home second-team All American honors on the vault.

"She just learned a lot from that experience that she brought that to the team this year," Meg Stephenson said.

Other Gophers looking to make an impact in the line-up this season include junior Jenny Alf and sophomore Mary Skokut, both All-Big 10 selections on the balance beam, as well as senior Courtney Norman, a strong vault and floor competitor. The Minnesota coaches also brought in three freshmen: Alison Limb, a hometown product and elite competitor, Nicole Yonker, who is recovering from an Anterior Cruciate Ligament tear, and Carolyn Yernberg, a local Level 9 gymnast.

The team lost only three routines to graduation, and Meg Stephenson sees this team going further this year because of its experience and leaders. "We have incredible senior leadership this year," she said. "Their leadership is the best we've had in a few years, and this is beneficial for everyone."

Floor exercise will be the Gophers' strongest event this year, followed by bars. Balance beam, Jim Stephenson explained, could be a strong event for the team if the squad hits. Vault is weak, they contend, because it is tough to get a 10.0 start value. This year's vault team, however, will be their strongest yet, and both agree with the spirit of the new one-vault rule implemented in the 2001 season.

The road to Tuscaloosa will be tough this season for the Minnesota gymnasts. Their competition schedule includes the likes of two-time defending national champions UCLA, Stanford, Michigan and Utah. "We're kind of masochistic," said Jim Stephenson. "But we feel by putting them in this kind of environment helps prepare them. We know it's not about wins and losses at the end of the season. It's about where you are compared to the rest of the teams."

The change in environment and crowd tends to help the team as well. "If you go to Utah or Alabama, you get a good crowd," Meg Stephenson said. "To be able to go to a place with at least 10,000 people, it gets them ready. The plane travel also helps them to prepare for the championship meets."

The Golden Gophers and their coaches are excited to make a return to Tuscaloosa and make a bid for the national championship title for the first time since their last trip to the big show in 1997. "The Alabama crowd is the most well-mannered, educated crowd. They welcome and are receptive to good gymnastics," Meg Stephenson said. "Our athletes love it."

"Our expectation is to put the best team Minnesota ever had on the floor," Jim Stephenson concluded. "We are going to hit routines when it counts, and we are excited about the quality of gymnastics we are seeing. Our girls are training to make the Super Six [Final] this year."

Next Week: Maryland.