For the third time in as many meets, Denise Houda captured the all-around title in Illinois State gymnastics action, but the Redbirds dropped their first meet of the season, 193.875-193.675, to Illinois Saturday at Horton Field House.
The Redbirds, 2-1, posted their highest score of the year and were led by Houdas all-around score of 39.300 and her first-place finishes on the vault, bars and floor. Houda shared her first-place floor title with teammate Lisa Klein when they both posted scores of 9.900 and led the Birds to a season-high floor score of 49.075. Both Houdas floor and all-around scores were career-bests as she topped her former highs of 9.875 and 39.275, respectively.
This meet was really close from beginning to end, head coach Beth Larson commented. It was such an exciting meet with so many fans there supporting the teams, and we just went head-to-head every event.
Our performances signaled another step towards improvement this season, Larson continued. The most important thing for the programs success is to consistently improve our performances and scores, which is what we did tonight, putting us one step closer to regionals. We were a little shaky on bars and beam, but I feel that well turn that around for Thursdays meet with Missouri.
Leading Illinois to the win was junior Kara Kapernekas, who finished second in the all-around with a career-best score of 39.175 and first on the beam (9.875).
The Redbirds return to action Thursday, January 30, when they travel to Columbia, Mo., to take on Missouri for a 7 p.m. start time.
