Michigan sophomore Olivia Karas and the Wolverines are welcoming six new gymnasts to Anne Arbor this season. Karas, the Big Ten Freshman of the Year and a first team All-Big 10 member, writes to FloGymnastics about how defending Big Ten champion Michigan is gelling entering this season with its new-look roster.

Michigan Team 41: #MoneyInTheBank

By Olivia Karas

With the preseason more than halfway done, we're starting to get a glimpse of what our team is going to look like this season! With six new members on our team, five freshmen and a transfer, our team has many new faces to introduce into our program (12 overall on the team).

Of course, having so many new team members means a whole lot of bonding and a whole lot of new skills to debut for Michigan, which we are all really excited about. We went into preseason this year wanting a fun hashtag to carry throughout the season with us and ended up with #MoneyInTheBank. Every day we either make a deposit or a withdrawal to our team's figurative (and literal) bank. No, seriously, we literally have a bank that is a water jug to put plastic coins in and signify our progress.



Bonding and becoming a functioning team in the first few months of preseason is never an easy task, but with the season approaching, everyone is ready to put our built-up trust and faith in each other to the test. Our seniors have done a great job organizing team dinners and hangouts to help everyone get to know each other more! We went apple picking earlier in the semester, which was a super fun activity, and had a bonfire with everyone after a long week of practice.



We also got very lucky with our freshmen, who have all been very supportive at meets around the country since they committed. So we knew them well coming into the year. Our other newcomer, junior transfer Paige Zaziski, has also been a great addition to our team and has brought a lot of life to the gym atmosphere.

I have no doubt in my mind that this team is destined for great things and that every single person on the team has something special and important to contribute to Team 41 and to Michigan gymnastics as a whole. With our first meet at Utah on January 7, we have quite an opportunity to come out strong and ready to fight.

Get excited for some high-energy gymnastics and fun, new personalities! Michigan gymnastics is coming for ya! Go Blue!


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