This past weekend, Drew Brady '96 traveled to Texas Women's College in Denton, Texas, to compete in the U.S. Gymnastics Collegiate National Championship.
Brady, captain of the Dartmouth gymnastics club team and the sole Big Green representative to the tournament, captured a ninth-place finish in the all-around competition.
The all-around consists of six events: floor exercise, pommel horse, rings, vault, parellel bars and high bar. Brady had consistently high scores on five out of the six events, struggling a little on the pommel horse, but earning a personal best of 9.1 on the high bars.
A sixth-place finisher last year, Brady faced tougher competition this year from schools whose programs were recently dropped to club status and thus were allowed to compete.
The tournament brings together the best athletes from Division two and three schools, but also allows Division one schools whose teams have club or unfunded varsity status.
UCLA, allowed to compete in the tournament for the first time, was ranked number one in the nation only a couple of years ago before losing its funded varsity status.
Dartmouth moved its gymnastics team from unfunded varsity to club status two years ago, but this move had little impact on the team because it had not been receiving funding anyways. The six-member team relies on the "Friends of Gymnastics" fund, which allowed it to compete in five tri-meets this year and allowed Brady to go to the tournament.
Brady would like more participation on the team. "I, of course, would have liked to see more people interested and committed to the team, but we did well with what we had," he said. The team makes up what it loses in numbers with determination and perserverance. Brady credits his success to his teammates and two coaches.
Brady plans to be at next year's tournament in Seattle. The increased competition acts as a motivator. "I got to see some first class gymnastics and it encouraged me and inspired me to work harder so that next year I'll be better able to compete with the higher level gymnasts," he said.
