by The new University of Minnesota’s Women’s Gopher Gymnastics’ training facility has been open and in use for over a year now.
“Truly is a blessing,” said Seria Johnson, a fourth-year gymnast. “When we first saw this gym, you could tell by the video, the spark in our eyes, we were so excited.”
The gymnastics team has had a rush. From advancing to the NCAA Regional Finals for the fourth time in five years, to extending its streak to 15 consecutive winning seasons, and being ranked number 15, the third-best of the Big Ten programs, according to Gopher Sports.
Now, a state-of-the-art training center.
Mya Hooten, an alum of the team and now, the assistant coach, said the new building is a long time in the coming.
“We’re so grateful to have this amazing facility,” Hooten said.
Before Hooten could coach in the new center in Athletes Village, she spent hours training at Peik gym.
“At Peik gymnasium we had no air conditioning, so in the summer it would get really hot and we would sweat doing our warm-up.”
Peik gym was demolished late last year after the gymnastics team had moved into the new facility located on the East Bank campus, according to the University of Minnesota Capital Project Management.
Jeff Seifriz, the assistant athletics director, said it was not cost effective to put AC in the multi-floor facility.
“We looked for up to two years at whether ‘Could we remodel Peik?’ No, we can’t remodel Peik. ‘Could we look at a different space on campus that wasn’t too far away?’” Seifriz said.
Seifriz said the new performance center was 10 years in the making.
“I think push kinda came to shove with campus saying this building is so outdated,” Seifriz said.
Johnson practiced in Peik for two-and-a-half years and said there was only one bar set that everybody had to rotate around to use.
“Whereas here, we have four different rails,” Johnson said. “So you could be chalking up with somebody you’ve never got to chalk up with before.”
Additionally to the lack of equipment, Peik did not have as safe of an environment compared to the new facility, according to Seifriz.
“Different heights of things. The trampolines are up here, the floor X was at this height,” Seifriz said. “The new facility, almost everything’s at the same exact thing.”
Johnson said the new center also has a variety of surfaces to land on including, foam pits, resi-pits, and firmer or calmer floors.
“We worked with what we had at Peik,” Hooten said. “We still made it to nationals that year and we didn’t have a great gym, but this makes it easy to also come back from injuries.”
Johnson said Peik also did not have windows which made it hard to know what time of day it was.
“We might be practicing at 5 p.m. and we had to create that energy,” Johnson said.
In the new center though, are translucent windows facing the south and east sides that go up high. This allows the lights in the center to be dim, lowering the cost and usage of electricity.
“And that just helps your energy level when you walk into a bright place,” Hooten said.
According to Seifriz, the new center also has a storm water capture that sends water back to the Athletes Village plant, and solar panels that can produce power for about 11 houses.
“We are all so grateful and it’s the best place in the world,” Hooten said.
