NORMAL, Ill. – The Illinois State gymnastics team competed in a dual meet this weekend, where the Redbirds competed against No. 8 nationally-ranked Denver and No. 22 nationally-ranked Illinois inside Magness Arena. Denver won the meet with a score of 196.975, followed by the Illini with a 195.450, and the Redbirds came in third with a score of 192.175.
"On floor, we had strong performances from Samantha Ward and Gabrielle Cooke," ISU head coach Bob Conkling said. "Unfortunately, we made too many mistakes on floor and it ended up being our weakest event for the day. We started on beam and it was very strong, with our top score this season from Gabrielle Cooke, who placed third in the all-around competition."
Cooke continues to show her strength on all four routines and finished in third overall with a score of 38.975 in the all-around due to her outstanding performance on balance beam with a personal-best score of 9.900. Cooke also tied for fifth on balance beam with a score of 9.800.
Senior Samantha Ward continued her hard work on floor and came in eighth for the Redbirds with a score of 9.775. Demi Pas also had a strong performance, following Cooke on beam with a score 9.850.
"We will step back in the gym learning a lot from this meet," Conkling said. "We learned that cleaning up our gymnastics, confidence and better consistency puts us where we need to be if we want to be more competitive the rest of the season. We will work hard in the gym this week to improve for our next meet at home on Sunday."
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