In 1990, the Tiger gymnastics team entered the NCAA Southeast regional meet as the 19^th-ranked team in NCAA Division I and the third-seeded team in the region.

Knowing that his team would have to surpass at least seven teams to qualify for the 12-team nationals, Coach Dick Filbert estimated that his team's chances of making nationals were about "100-to-1."

He added, "We needed to have a very good meet and we needed some teams in other regions not to do so well."

Fortunately, Filbert is much better at coaching gymnastics than he is as an oddsmaker.

The Tiger Throwback Series is presented by Hollenshades.

The 1990 Tigers were an outstanding team. In just their fourth season as an NCAA Division I program, Towson posted a 23-1 regular season record, beating the likes of North Carolina, Maryland and West Virginia. Then, they won their fourth straight Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) title and went to regionals as the 19^th-ranked team in the nation.

"That was a great group from the seniors down to the freshmen," Filbert recalls. "We had depth and chemistry with an amazing work ethic. I was so proud of them. They gave me everything I could have asked for."
The Tigers headed to the University of Florida with a 187.44 Regional Qualifying Score. Georgia was the top seed (191.550) while Gators were second (188.99).

At the Southeast regional meet, Towson started on the balance beam and turned in a solid score of 46.250. Senior Stephanie St. Angelo led off with a 9.325 score before junior Anne Sugden struggled with a 9.15 score. Freshman Janine Spezio contributed a 9.30 before senior Lori Salindong, the program's leading scorer, counted a fall and had an 8.95. Sophomore Tandy Knight also had a fall before sophomore Wendy Weaver came up with a 9.525 score.

Weaver's score was the start of a memorable meet for the Newark, Delaware native.

Towson came back strong on the floor exercise and had a 47.90 team score. After Spezio led off with a 9.325, freshman Gabby Linarducci posted a 9.55 score. Salindong followed with a 9.575 score before freshman Maureen Greim had a team best 9.65 score. Knight and Weaver completed the floor with scores of 9.525 and 9.60.

On the vault, the Tigers had a 46.90 score. Weaver led the Tigers with a 9.50 score while St. Angelo and junior Carri Scott produced 9.40 scores on vault. Salindong also had a 9.35 score.

In their final rotation, Towson competed on bars. Led by Weaver and Sugden, the Tigers had a 47.725 score to finish with a 188.775 team score. Weaver finished an amazing night with a 9.75 bars score, tying for third place in the meet. Sugden placed sixth with a 9.675 score on bars.

Her performance on bars completed the best meet of Weaver's career. She set a school record with her 38.375 all-around score and she finished fourth in the regional. Most importantly, she qualified for nationals as an individual all-around.

"That was the greatest meet I've ever had," recalled Weaver. "It was a very emotional thing for me and I could hardly stop crying."

Towson's 188.775 team score earned the Tigers a fourth place finish, just behind Kentucky. However, in those days the formula for determining the National Qualifying Score involved doubling the R.Q.S., adding the regional score, and dividing by three. That gave Towson a 188.3300 National Qualifying Score.

Filbert recalls, "We scored one point higher than our national qualifying score against some strong competition in a noisy arena. Our gymnasts responded well. I couldn't ask for any more."

"After the meet, nobody talked about our chances of going to nationals," recalls Sugden, who is Anne Sugden Wolff. "We were excited about Wendy qualifying as an individual but we were used to coming close and just missing out."

Coach Filbert was half-asleep in his hotel room with a Robin Williams movie on the television set. It was close to 3:00 a.m. and the Tiger gymnastics coach was tired.

He was awakened by a phone call that startled him. When he picked up the phone, he was talking to Suzanne Yoculan, the head coach at national champion Georgia and she was excited.

She told Filbert, "You made it. You're going to Nationals."

She told him the results of all five regional meets and she went over the calculations. The Georgia coach was excited because it marked the first time ever that the Southeast region would send three teams to Nationals.

In those days, there was no internet to let him see the results. There were very few cell phones and Coach Filbert was unable to get any kind of confirmation.

But, he couldn't contain his excitement. He went to all the rooms where the gymnasts were staying and woke them up to tell them the good news. Most of the were skeptical. In fact, some thought it might be a prank.

By the time the gymnasts were awake and ready to go back to campus the next morning, they had realized it was no joke.

Still, the coach had no official confirmation. He called the administrators at Towson and told them the good news.

It wasn't until everyone arrived back on campus later in the afternoon, the Tigers got the official word. There was a long message on the FAX machine from the NCAA and Oregon State University, the host school.
It listed the 12 teams heading to Corvalis for nationals, Utah, Alabama, Georgia, UCLA, Nebraska, LSU, Cal State Fullerton, Florida, host Oregon State, Arizona, Towson State and Ohio State. Coach Yoculan's math was right on the nose.

"For once, the cards fell in our favor," recalls Sugden Wolff. "It was a crazy time for us. We had about and a week and a half until nationals and to know we were going was a little surreal.

"We were very proud to be going to nationals," she added. "We were a confident team and we knew we belonged."

However, when they arrived at Oregon State, the Tigers realized they were a curiosity among the other gymnasts on the other teams.

Knight recalled, "We joked that we went out there to have a good time and to teach everyone how to pronounce Towson. We heard all sorts of versions of how to say the name of the school and everyone wanted to know where it was located."

Filbert recalled that many of the coaches cautioned him not to expect too much. They said that many teams have a very hard time the first time they made it to nationals.

The Tiger coach had no such concerns.

"There was no pressure on us," said Knight. "We believed in ourselves and we weren't afraid. During my career, we never went into any of them afraid. Of course, when we were facing a team like Georgia, we realized that we probably weren't going to win. But we knew we weren't going to embarrass ourselves."

The national championship meet was divided into two sessions. The teams that were seeded seven through 12 competed in the first session. The top six teams were in the second session. Then, the NCAA would have the "Super Six," which determined the national champion.

Towson joined Cal Fullerton, Florida, Oregon State, Arizona and Ohio State in the first session.

Sugden remembers, "We did very well. We made 23 of 24 routines and finished third in the session."

The Tigers turned in an impressive 187.975 team score to finish ninth overall. They had a 47.425 score on bars and a 46.775 score on beam. They posted a 46.900 on floor and a 46.875 vault score.

The team that nobody knew finished ahead of Florida (187.175), Arizona (187.175) and Ohio State (183.65).

Weaver and Knight were the Tigers' all-around performers. Weaver had a 38.275 score in the all-around while Knight posted a 36.55. Sugden led the Tigers won bars with a 9.625, just behind Weaver and her 9.675. Spezio had a 9.575 score on beam while Maureen Greim posted a 9.40 on floor.

Knight remembers her favorite moment very clearly. It came when they announced that Dick Filbert was named as the co-winner of the National Coach of the Year.

"He was the sole reason for our team's success," says Knight. "Honestly, we were just a group of gymnasts who weren't recruited by a lot of schools. He saw something in each one of us and made us believe in ourselves.
"When I was a freshman, he told me that balance beam was my best event," she adds. "I laughed and I told him that wasn't true. But, he worked with me and built my confidence. I ended up becoming the ECAC balance beam champion as a freshman and sophomore."

In less than two years, Gabby was the ECAC all-around champion and she became the ECAC Gymnast of the Year in 1993.

Generally considered the best team in Towson gymnastics history, the 1990 Tigers had six Hall of Famers and nine 1,000-point scorers. Salindong ended her career as the Tigers' career scorer with 1,718.30 points, a mark she held until Knight broke her mark with1,771.875 points.

Sugden and St. Angelo were among the top five scorers when they graduated and they were followed by Spezio, Weaver and Linarducci. Scott ended her career with a 1,214.600 points while Julie Heilman was also a 1,000-point scorer.

Salindong, Knight, Weaver, Sugden, Linarducci and Spezio all became Hall of Famers.

The Tigers' 1990 season was a very successful but it didn't start that way, according to Knight.

She said, "We had a very bad pre-season. There were a lot of nagging injuries and there was a considerable amount of drama among the team members. We weren't working hard and it was looking like things were going to fall apart.

"About two weeks before the start of the season, Coach Filbert had a team meeting," she recalls. "He read us the riot act. This was a guy who never raised his voice and we realized we had driven him to behave like this. From that point on, we left our issues outside the gym and functioned like a team."

Filbert, who coached the Tigers for 27 seasons, led Towson to a 491-149-2 record before he retired in 2010. He led the Tigers to 13 ECAC championships and 13 appearances in the NCAA Southeast regionals.

He says that his association with his assistant coach, the former Lynda McDonald, was a key to their success. Lynda joined the program in 1988 and worked with her future husband until 2010. During that time, she was named as the NCAA Southeast Regional Assistant Coach of the Year.

When Coach Filbert was named as the co-winner of the NCAA National Coach of the Year award, he said, "This is a great honor. It's a tribute to our coaches, our gymnasts and our staff. Making Nationals showed that you can take a group of unheralded gymnasts and train them right, keep them healthy and establish a team that can compete on a national level."

Along with many of their former teammates, Sugden Wolff and Knight attend many of the Tigers' meets at SECU Arena.

"We usually run into each other at home meets," says Sugden Wolff. "Even though we may not have seen each other in a while, it's like we are back in school."

Knight, who does color commentary on Towson's gymnastics meet broadcasts on the internet, adds, "We are all very proud of what we accomplished as gymnasts at Towson and we are all very supportive."
 
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