It came down to the last event for each team, and the Illinois State Dream Beam Team made an appearance Sunday afternoon at Southeast Missouri State in Cape Girardeau, Mo., to earn a team score of 49.275 behind Lisa Kleins record-tying 9.950 and nip SEMO, 192.850 - 192.575.
The Redbirds, 2-0, captured the top five spots in the balance beam competition. First place went to Klein, who tied a Redbird record set by teammate Heather Mohler in 2001 with a 9.950. Denise Houda captured second place on the beam (9.900) and her second all-around title in as many meets, turning in an all-around score of 38.950. Amy Biedenharn chipped in a career-best 9.850 on the beam, and Jaime Reineck and Mohler added scores of 9.825 and 9.750, respectively, to complete the sweep.
We had a great performance today capitalized by some huge highlights, head coach Beth Larson commented. It was a great meet, thanks to our consistent performances and our strong finish on the beam. We had great scores and great performances on the beam, which was just the way to end the meet.
Our confidence level has increased so much since our first meet, Larson continued. With our first meet under our belts, we were able to just go in and focus on what we had to do to be successful.
Other top Illinois State performances were turned in by Houda and Mohler on the vault, who tied for first for the second straight week (9.725). Houda also contributed a 9.675 on the bars.
Houda had another amazing competition, Larson said. She hit some of the best sets shes done in the past couple of years, and I feel that this is just going to give her more confidence to be the star that she is in her senior year.
The Redbirds will return to action Saturday, January 25 at Horton Fieldhouse when they host Illinois at 4 p.m.
