Junior Lisa Puccio
  
 
Lisa Puccio's Cancun Journal

Lisa Puccio chronicles Mizzou's Cancun trip

Jan. 15, 2007

Jan. 15, 2007

GALLERY

Junior Lisa Puccio chronicles Missouri's trip to Cancun for the Cancun Classic.

Cancun, Mexico, is a place filled with sunshine, beautiful beaches and clear ocean water. But last week this vacation paradise was overflowing with hundreds of gymnasts. We arrived Wednesday night with enough time to grab some dinner and a quick walk on the beach. Then it was off to bed. We got an early start on Thursday morning with breakfast and then headed to the Hilton for practice. One of the hotel van drivers was nice enough to drive us over so our team of 16 gymnasts, plus Rob (Drass, head coach) and Bunny (Schwartzman, undergraduate assistant coach) piled into a van. We arrived at the gym ready and excited for practice.

After a good, solid practice, we walked back to the hotel, quickly changed into our swimming suits and headed down to the beach for a few hours before showering and dressing up for the meet banquet. There was food and entertainment, which included a mariachi band and a strength show. We took lots of pictures then went back to our hotel for a good night sleep before the meet.

Friday was filled with anticipation and excitement as this meet officially marked the beginning of the 2007 season. We spent the morning taking public transportation to downtown Cancun where we shopped and walked around to experience some Mexican culture. After a bit of culture shock, hair was done, bags were packed, and once again we crammed ourselves into the van and set off to begin our season. Warm-ups went well but some nerves and first meet jitters created problems and a few falls for our first two rotations, bars and beam. After beam, we picked things up a bit and had good floor and vault rotations. We finished the meet in fourth place behind Iowa State, Auburn, and BYU. We knew there were a few things that needed to be worked out in the gym when we got back but we still had two more days in paradise to enjoy.

Saturday was a blast. Rob took us snorkeling, but the most fun was driving the two or four person boats to the reef. There was lots of screaming and laughing as we hit waves and tried to keep up with the guide. Once on the reef, Brooke (Boehmer) and I had to stay on the boat because of our ACL injuries but I got to practice a bit of my Spanish with our guide Luis! The rest of the day was spent in the pool or on the beach perfecting our tans. Around 7:30 we left the hotel for a night on the town. We ate at Senor Frog's where they made everyone balloon hats and we danced on our chairs. Rob even showed everyone a bit of his gymnastics as he did a backhandspring on stage for the whole restaurant to see. We had a few mishaps during the evening but still managed to have a great time.

Sunday was spent with more relaxing on the beach and the pool. We finally arrived back home around 3:00 a.m. Monday morning exhausted and a little sunburned. Everyone had a great time but we knew that it would be back to business in the gym a few hours after our arrival to prepare for our first home meet Friday, January 12th. This should be a very exciting year for Tiger gymnastics so come and see for yourself! GO TIGERS!!!

Lisa Puccio

 

 

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