Take a good long look because you won't be seeing these for a while.
Unfortunately for Michigan, when discussing their 2012 season, we're talking more about what they've lost instead of what they have. Most importantly, they've lost Kylee Botterman. The team will miss her, and we as fans will miss her. Though I will not miss the way the Michigan PA announcer said her name. That will haunt my nightmares.
Trying to replace the national AA champion would be difficult enough, but the team has also lost Jordan Sexton, Sarah Curtis, and Trish Wilson, making a repeat of their 2011 Super Six performance seem like a near impossibility. What's more, now that former signee Morgan Steigerwalt has . . . had a change of plans and is now at Arizona State, the team is fielding only 11 gymnasts this season, with only 2 new freshmen trying to replace the 4 contributing graduates.
Freshman Sachi Sugiyama performs an excellent Yurchenko 1.5 that should help boost the vault lineup. She fully rotates the vault with confident landing, and the increased difficulty over the more common full should help elevate the score. On floor, while she doesn't have tremendous difficulty, she performs cleanly and can also contribute. I'm not sold on her bars capabilities. She has too many leg separations and missed handstands to be relied upon to score well. This could be a problem for Michigan, as she is stronger on events where they already have at least a little more depth with gymnasts like Natalie Beilstein, Katie Zurales, and Reema Zakharia. Where are the bar workers?
The other incoming freshman, Annette Miele, competed elite for Parkettes in 2009 and 2010, which has given her the basic skill level and difficulty to be a necessary all-arounder for this team in 2012. She doesn't have a standout event, but her abilities on bars will be required to fill those holes in the lineups. She also competes a solid enough Yurchenko 1.5 on vault to be usable.
