Last season's top dog in the Mid-American Conference women's gymnastics competition is starting out this season as the underdog.

Needless to say, Western Michigan (11-4 overall in 2023) wants to be the top dog again and the Broncos may just be able to do that as they return three 'super seniors' as 11^th year head coach Penny Jernigan calls her trio who started as freshmen in 2020. WMU also has three seniors who were part of the 2021 class returning on a team with 21 members.

This is 'Team 50' as Jernigan is calling her squad because this is the 50^th anniversary of women's gymnastics at Western Michigan,

In 2023, the Broncos tied Ball State for the Mid-American Conference regular season title with a 5-1 record, but WMU edged the Cardinals in the head-to-head dual. The preseason MAC poll has Ball State and Central Michigan tied for the top spot with the Broncos in third. At least WMU received one vote in the portion which picked the team to win the MAC league meet.

''Polls are polls and they usually aren't right,'' Jernigan said with a smile. ''It's fuel for the fire.''

The fire has started off pretty hot already. After an exhibition meet at Michigan where WMU topped both Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan, the Broncos beat Eastern Michigan in a non-conference match this past Sunday.

The super seniors are two-time MAC Gymnast of the year Payton Murphy, Amanda Gruber and Josie Thomas.

''They have the maturity and calmness about them because they are seasoned competitors,'' Jernigan said. ''We have the leadership of all the seniors and then we have a freshman class with amazing energy.''

The seniors are Sarah Moravansky Dani Petrousek and Breckin Quoss. In fact, nine of the 10 gymnasts who competed for WMU in last season's MAC Championship return. They are Murphy, Gruber, Petrousek, Quoss, Morvansky, and juniors Halle Faulkner, Donnakathryn Roy, Gigi Singh and Cassie St. Clair.

The junior class also includes Molly Freeman, Ally Schaupp and Abby Singh.

The sophomores are Agenais Abeyta and Makenna King. The freshmen are Reese Samuelson, Hannah Milton, Leanne Desmond, Brooke Gelesko, Julie Korfhage and Emily Krzciok.

''Penny's big thing (about being picked third) is that it's outside noise,'' Guber, the outstanding balance beam competitor, said. ''They can put that up there, but they don't know what goes on every day, they don't know what kind of preseason we had and what skills we have in our back pockets.''

The preseason not only included the meet at Michigan, but a trip to Nassau, Bahamas to be part of a gymnastics event at the Atlantis Resort.

''It was an exhibition event for us in that we divided the team into Brown vs. Gold so it gave a lot of athletes a chance to compete,'' Jernigan said. ''It was an amazing trip.

''For some of them, they had never traveled internationally. It was a great chance to compete and bond. Atlantis has a huge water park, we went to the ocean and had an excursion to swim with the pigs. We really appreciate everyone who helped make that happen.''

Murphy and Gruber have been named gymnasts to watch by the league's coaches. Last season, Murphy shared the floor title with a score of 9.950 and was third in the all-around. Gruber tied for second on the beam 9.875.

Several of the freshmen are already contributing.

''We expected Reese to contribute immediately on the bars,'' Jernigan said. ''She was a very high level club gymnast, scoring a 9.95 in a junior Olympic program.

''Hannah was kind-of an unknown, but my instinct on her was she would really thrive in college gymnastics and she has. It was an amazing fall and we expected them all to get right in the mix.''

Added Gruber: ''It's like déjà vu this year in that my first class we had six amazing freshmen and now we have another six amazing freshmen this year. There is so much depth in this team and the freshmen have brought the energy.''

The three super seniors all had about the same reason for extending their college gymnastics careers…injuries.

''In our freshman year, Payton had an injury and she knew right away she would come back,'' Gruber said. ''My sophomore year, I had a season-ending injury and at that point I knew I was coming back.

''Then Josie had an injury last year and she wanted to come back.''

While she's done well on the beam, she's done even better in the classroom. She has a 4.0 GPA in biomedical science and she's planning on applying for the physician's assistant program next year.

Gruber started in gymnastics when she was age 3, her parents finding out quickly she was way too hyper to do ballet.

But, why do the balance beam, arguably the hardest event, which is competed on a beam four inches wide and four-feet off the floor?

''I asked myself that and I don't know why, but I love it,'' Gruber said. ''When I came here, my dismounts were awful, but I give Penny so much credit, working with me over the years where we have detail-focused on the event and I've excelled at it.''

Gruber is tied for the WMU school record with a top score of 9.950.

However, the number which is still in the back of her mind as she enters her final year of college gymnastics is .025. That is how close she came to qualifying for the NCAA Championships in the beam last season. In the NCAA regional meet, she had a 9.900.

''I think about that .025 all the time,'' Gruber, the president of WMU's Student Athlete Advisory Council, said. ''That number is a pointed-toe, which would get you a higher score.''

In a prediction WMU's gymnasts and coaches hopes does come true is the one from the Women's Collegiate Gymnastics Association where the Broncos are picked to qualify for the for the NCAA tournament for the fourth straight year.

''We've made it three years in a row, and each year, we've gotten better performing at the meet,'' Jernigan said. ''One of my goals is to get to day three of the regionals for the team and advance an individual to the nationals.''

The underdog just might do it this season.