2025 COMPETITION SEASON IS RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER
GOLD DEFEATS MAROON IN ANNUAL MAROON & GOLD MEET
With the season less than a month away, the team has been preparing with great focus and energy. On December 8th The annual Maroon & Gold Intrasquad Meet took place for the first time in ages in a location other than the 3rd floor of Cooke Hall. Dale Bullivant from North Shore Gymnastics hosted his annual Kickoff Classic and added an optional session to it. The meet was located at the beautiful Orono Activities Center in Long Lake, MN and this was our first equipment rental with all the equipment we’ve purchased over the past 5 months.
After setting up all the equipment Saturday night, the team proceeded to put on a great show with the Gold Team prevailing by 3 ½ points over the Maroon Team – 229.7 to 226.2. Lots of solid routines with a few rusty spots interspersed. Some highlights include the following:
Charlie Larson won FX with a huge routine (14.15) and Vault with one of his best Yurchenko 2½’s
Kellen Ryan won the All Around with a score of 78.05 and a victory on High Bar with a 12.55
Sophomore Paul Acker was victorious on Pommel Horse with a 12.70
Sophomore David Grossman won Still Rings with a big score of 13.15 and a stuck double-double
David Grossman also posted a winning score of 13.05 on the Parallel Bars
Hats off to the entire team who were recruited to set up and tear down all the equipment on top of competing, all this with final exams looming in the very near future. Great job guys!
Four days later the team got to set up two full truckloads of women’s equipment for the USAG Minnesota Girls State Meet. This was a three-hour setup, followed by a three-hour tear-down on Sunday night, December 15th. This was a nice payday as the meet hosts wrote a $4500 check to the Friends Of Minnesota Men’s Gymnastics. The money is starting to roll into the Team Coffers!!
DECADES FUNDRAISER SHOWING GREAT PROGRESS
The Decade by Decade Alumni Fundraising efforts are being spearheaded by our FMMG Board of Directors. The board has separated our Gopher Gymnastics Alumni into five separate decades and assigned a Decade Captain(s) to each decade. Each captain is responsible for reaching out to fellow decade team members to make donations to keep the team and program alive and well and being able to continue to move in a forward direction.
Here’s the breakdown of Decades and decade captains:
The pre-1980’s decade, Team Captain Russ Fystrom
The 1980’s decade, Team Captains Brian Meeker and Jeff Murray
The 1990’s decade, Team Captains John Roethlisberger and Frank Ticknor
The 2000’s decade, Team Captains Aaron Fortunato and Clay Strother
The 2010’s and above, Team Captains Steve Jaciuk and Ellis Mannon
This has become an annual fundraising campaign, and the goal this year has been set for each decade to raise $20,000 for a total Alumni Fundraising goal of $100,000.
I’ve been so impressed by the level of donations that have been arriving either through checks being sent in the mail or donations being made online through the Friends of Minnesota Men’s Gymnastics website (https://minnesotagymnastics.org/donate-to-the-fmmg) or through our Venmo app (@FMMGymnastics). The Venmo QR Code is at the end of this newsletter.
Here’s how the decades look at this point in time:
Pre-1980’s: $11,413.00
1980’s: $16,445.84
1990’s: $12,799.33
2000’s: $2,750.00
2010’s +: $25,365.01
TOTAL: $68,773.18
WOW -----WOW -----WOW
This is absolutely amazing. The alumni are stepping up again this year!! The money continues to come in through our donation portal on the FMMG website. If you’d like to make an end-of-the-year tax-deductible donation to assist in the 2025 version of Minnesota Men’s Gymnastics, please do so!!
Visit our website and click the box to DONATE:
2024 CHAMPIONSHIP RINGS ARRIVED
After winning the GymACT National Team Title back in May we decided National Championship Rings were a much-needed victory prize for every member of the team. The rings were designed with input from team leaders and the finished product arrived just last week. We put together a team brunch at the Gym House to present the rings to all the team members who were on campus before the end of the semester and the start of Final Exams.
