Welcome MLive readers to your complete source of coverage for WMU Athletics!
KALAMAZOO, Mich. – Thirty years ago this season, the Western Michigan gymnastics team accomplished a milestone in program history, winning its first Mid-American Conference Championship in 1986. The program has since gone on to win three more, with the most recent coming in 2013, but there is nothing like the first group which is being honored this weekend as part of a reunion weekend and will be introduced at the meet on Sunday against Kent State.
“The first championship made a major impact on my life,” Western Michigan former gymnastics coach now athletic director Kathy Beauregard said. “There is nothing like that first championship. When I got here, I was 23 years old and I really had to build the program from the ground up. Now that I'm in athletic administration I can relate to those past experiences to how to build when we hire any member of the staff which I view as my team.”
The 1986 team came into the year having been runners-up the year before to Bowling Green at the MAC Championships. The team featured the then-reigning MAC Coach of the Year Beauregard. Returning on the mat were three All-MAC performers from 1985, Melanie White, Brigitte Boyer and Cindy Maizel. Stars appeared to align for a coronation inside University Arena, with the team set to host the 1986 MAC Championships.
Unfortunately the team faced adversity throughout the season due to injuries and was not being able to compete at full strength for the majority of the year. The team entered the meet on that day in Kalamazoo in the middle of the pack and knew it would take a large feat to pull off a title.
“We had the day that you just prepare and dream for,” Beauregard said. “Everyone did the best they could possibly do and perhaps it was even more than could have been expected. It was a culmination of all the current student-athletes at the time and the previous teams that helped build up to that day.”
During the year, the Broncos would go on to set 10 new school records, including then-best team meet scores in three events and culminating in a then program-record team score at the MAC Championships with a score of 180.65. That mark also set a new standard at the time for the conference meet with the old team record being 175.80 by Bowling Green in 1985. Individually, the Broncos set records in all-around (Linda Moran – 36.45) and vault (Jackie Klein – 9.30). Moran would go on to earn All-MAC honors as a freshman and Beauregard was named Coach of the Year for the second straight season.
Flash forward to the present and the Broncos are in a similar situation to what that team faced in 1986. Western Michigan has narrowly missed out in recent years on accomplishing the goal of qualifying for the first NCAA Tournament as a team. That remains the main goal for this year's group which is currently ranked No. 28 in the country and enters this weekend undefeated at 3-0. Like the 1986 team, the 2016 version of Western Michigan hopes to accomplish history and can learn from the group that will be in town this weekend on how best to capture the gold ring.
“Our gymnastics program is in tremendous shape right now,” Beauregard said. “The student-athletes are focused, they're prepared, they have all the choreography and I absolutely believe Coach Jernigan will take us to the next level which is the NCAA's as a team.”
This weekend Bronco gymnasts from prior years will be on hand for an open practice on Saturday before gathering for dinner Saturday night. Sunday afternoon all former gymnasts in attendance as well as all championship teams will be recognized at the end of the meet on the floor.
