Denise Houda scored a 38.950 to earn her the all-around title and lead the Illinois State gymnastics team to a season opening win over Southeast Missouri State, 191.400 - 188.625, Sunday afternoon at Horton Fieldhouse.
Houda, in her third season performing as a Redbird, tied her personal best score of 9.850 on bars to give the Redbirds a lead with two events to go. Houda took first place on thaty event, as well as on beam (9.70), and placed second on floor (9.85), and fourth on vault (9.55).
Although I am very happy with my performance today, I will use it as a starting point to build the rest of the season on, said Houda. Todays performance was totally positive, and it tells us what we need to do to prepare for the future.
Junior Heather Mohler finished third in the all-around, with a second-place finish on vault (9.725). Freshman Carlee Wright, senior Jamie Reineck and junior Kristy Kreinbrink each scored a 9.875 to dominate the floor exercise and share a three-way tie for first. Reineck went on to tie for second on beam with a score of 9.60, and Kreinbrink finished third on bars.
The Redbirds as a team finished strong on the floor exercise, the last event, to seal the win. First year head coach Beth Larson is proud of the team in its season opener.
The win is great, but we still have a lot of work to do, said Larson. It was a positive performance, but we know we can do so much better. We will go back into the gym and continue to fine-tune details to prepare us for our next meet.
The Redbirds will travel to Champaign, Ill. to take on the Fighting Illini on January 19 at 7 pm.
