“Everybody’s getting back to gymnastics, and I honestly think we’re going to do well,” she said. “We’ve had intrasquads and everything, and we’ve all come together as a team.”

The Spartans have been practicing five days a week for four hours in each session, but the intensity needs to be maintained months before the season begins, so each gymnast physically is prepared. Teike said everyone’s body gets beaten up, but it’s necessary to prepare and compete in a smart manner.

“That’s just the nature of our sport,” head coach Kathie Klages said. “Some sports come in, and they do 21 practice days, and they’re in competition. That’s just not how our sport is, so we’re always in the gym.”

Seeing the most team potential on the beam, senior Kathryn Mahoney said the team still has a significant amount of work to do before the season starts, especially because multiple team injuries are leaving the vault as the major weakness.

Before the season starts after the new year, MSU will hold a Green and White meet at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Jenison Field House. On Jan. 7, the team will open its regular season hosting No. 9 Michigan, Iowa and Western Michigan.

With four weeks between the two competitions, Klages is looking to take advantage of the preseason competition and tweak the details of each gymnast’s performance. Because MSU has a young team this season, the pressure of perfecting the details in the last few weeks will grow leading up to the first meet.

“We’re really excited about getting underway with competition, and I think the Green and White meet on Friday night will help us see where we’re at and what we have to do between that and our very first competition,” Klages said.

Last season, the team had two freshmen. This year, the team has seven. Klages said adjusting from about six competitions a year with a club team to 13 with MSU is a typical struggle for freshmen, and it might be worse this time around with such a large group.

“We have seven freshmen on the team, and I think because of that, there are a lot of question marks,” Klages said. “There are days in the gym that we, as a coaching staff, will question, ‘Are they ready? Do they understand what’s coming up with the gymnastics season? Do we think they can handle it?’

“And then the next day, they will do amazing work in the gym, and we’ll be, ‘Oh my gosh, they’re so ready.’”

Klages noted how the leadership from the team’s three seniors – Mahoney, Nicole Argiros and Nicole Heikkila – will help the team bond together.

“We have a lot of background with competing and being around great leaders last year that we learned a lot from,” Mahoney said. “I think we’re just ready to lead our team to achieve all of our goals.”