This year marks Fred Turoff's silver anniversary-25 years at the helm of the well-respected men's gymnastics program. How does the team stack up for the coming season? "Promising, answers coach Turoff,"as we have three experienced seniors, two of whom missed all or part of last season, to lead two younger conference champions and the largest team we've had in my career."

The three seniors have been voted tri-captains by their teammates. All- arounder Rob Chacon missed a portion of last season due to injury and returns as a regular performer on at least four events, with horizontal bar as his strongest. Aaron Murphy, another all-arounder and co-captain last season, suffered an early-season concussion and wound up red-shirting. His strongest event is pommel horse on which medalled at the 1999 ECAC Championships. Nick Veneziale earned a starting spot on the floor exercise and vault last year. He was a walk -on as a freshman. Both Rob and Nick were named All-American Scholar -Athletes last season.

Four juniors look to push the seniors for starting spots. Alec Gonzalez made a few appearances and may compete on pommel horse and parallel bars. Adriel Loschak competed mainly on pommel horse and parallel bars. Brian Munn was an ECAC medalist on rings and a competitor at the NCAA qualifier. Timothy ("TG") Lentz could challenge for a spot as well.

The sophomore class is the largest ever on a Turoff-led Temple team. Kevin Hallinan worked all- around in many meets and was a steady leadoff man. Theo Maes surprised everyone by becoming a regular on floor exercise and vault, placing 5th on vault in The ECAC and getting to the NCAA qualifier. Richie MaGuire earned the ECAC vault title and went to both the NCAA and USA Championship qualifiers. He is a strong all- arounder, having placed 3rd in the ECAC and is especially good on floor exercise and vault. Jason Moresi placed 3rd on pommel horse in the ECAC and went to the NCAA qualifier. He could contribute on parallel bars and horizontal bar as well. Adam Owens saw regular action on pommel horse, while Travis Pummer regularly worked rings and parallel bars. Alex Weber won floor exercise at the ECAC Championships after placing 5th all-around. He qualified for the NCAA Championships and barely missed the USA Championships. His pommel horse is exceptional and all other events are good.

Rounding out the sophomores are four who should see action this season. Michael Ast has improved on floor exercise and vault especially, while Adam Courtney has made great strides on rings and horizontal bar. Jeremy Nelson now performs some high- level floor exercise and pommel horse skills, and Tory Torcomian will challenge for a starting spot on both rings and vault.

New faces this year include several that have seen years of Jr. Olympic competition. John Behrle has shown good twisting on floor exercise and promising pommel horseprowess. Zach Hanson- Hart is a good bet to compete on floor exercise and vault. Travis Kitchen is an all-arounder who finished 23rd in last year's Jr. Olympics Championships. He could help on each event. Dave Nowakowski and John Malec (a junior transfer) will likely work toward competiton next year.

Tom Gibbs, is a teammate of coach Turoff in the late 60s returns as assistant coach. Also assisting is Mike Moran, who is finishing his undergraduate studies after a highly successful career.