The No. 42 Illinois State gymnastics team returns to competition this weekend in a dual meet at Southeat Missouri State and in the Corvette Cup Invitational hosted by Missouri.
The Redbirds are returning from a two week break from competition, where they used their time to rest physically and mentally from the sport in order to come back fresh and focused.
On Friday, the Redbirds will take on the Otahkians of SEMO at 7 p.m. in Houck Field House. Illinois State beat No. 52 SEMO in a home dual meet earlier this year, 191.400 - 188.625.
Head coach Beth Larson is excited about the weekend and is looking forward to the building experience.
We start out at SEMO, which is a dual meet in a small arena. Then we will move onto the Corvette Cup Invitational, which is hosted in a large arena and the atmosphere will be pure excitement and energy, said Larson. It is an advantage to go into a weekend having back to back competitions, especially having one competition under their belt to get all of the jitters out, and then get comfortable and back into competition mode again.
On Saturday, the Redbirds will be competing in a quadrangular meet against host school, No.19 Missouri, No. 14 Denver, and Utah State. Larson and the team are welcoming the opportunity to compete against some top programs in the nation.
Our expectations are to go out and have a great performance and keep improving our scores. Missouri is a school we are competing against in our region, and we want to go down there and show them that we can compete with the top 15 schools, said Larson. We are excited to get a chance to compete against some bigger competition, and that is a great experience for the team.
The Redbirds currently hold a 6-3 overall record and are No. 8 in the South Central region.
