Jan. 7, 2007
Get behind the scenes of Illinois Gymnastics with Illini Ink - the weekly women's gymnastics journal. This week, junior Krystal Melcarek talks about the team Christmas party and expectations for the team this year.
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Hey Illini fans,
The Illinois Women's Gymnastics team is finally back in Champaign after our 10-day winter break at home. Everyone is working out really hard in the gym, keeping in mind that we don't have to go to class, or study, so we can focus completely on practicing and perfecting our skills for our first competition against the University of Missouri!
Our second complete intersquad was Friday, Jan. 5th!! Since other teams competed this weekend, we treated this as a meet by doing all the things we would normally do at an away competition. This includes going out to lunch with the girls, and bumming around the mall. We are all super excited for season to start and have confidence that it will be a great year. Everyone is looking strong and well prepared for our 2007 season!
Outside the gym, all of us girls are having a blast hanging out with each other over this long break. The girls that usually live in the dorms are now living with other teammates in the apartments. We are all having a great time just hanging out!
This past Friday we had our annual Christmas gathering at Coach Bob's (check out our photo gallery for pictures). Bob made us all a nice pasta dinner with a huge salad, breadsticks, and vegetables. For appetizers, we all brought really good snacks such as spinach dip, quesadillas, and a fruit tray... it was oh so yummy! Before break, we all exchanged names for our Secret Santas and I picked Nicole Cowart. I got her a really cute sweater and an under shirt from Urban Behavior along with a fun red purse and a beaded necklace to go along with it. As we opened presents, it was so fun to see the how excited each girl, coach, and trainer got when they saw their gift.
After gift opening, we had a cookie-decorating contest. Our coach, Kim Landrus, judged everyone's cookies after we all put fun icing and sprinkling jimmies on the cookies. Kim decided the winners would be Marijka and Danye Botterman as well as Michelle McGrady! After all the fun decorating and amazing food, we watched Kim's wedding video from this summer and she looked stunning! It was a really fun night.
After New Year's, Varsity room opened for us gymnasts. Varsity Room is an awesome dining facility that the Football and Basketball players use all the time during the year but we get to use it during this break. The food is very good, especially the fruits! We love being able to go there and eat dinner as a team.
Even though we all have to be here for Christmas break when campus can be really dead, we are enjoying each other's company. It is an awesome opportunity to bond even closer as a team and improve our gymnastic ability as well. Be prepared for Illini Gymnastics '07, because we are bringing out the New Year in style!!
Don't forget our first home meet is January 27th , hope to see you there!
Go Illini!
Krystal
