The Illinois State gymnastics team carded a season-high score on the balance beam, as Anne Fjordholm and Cheryl Berezan advanced to Saturdays finals at the Callaway Bank Cat Classic, in Columbia, Mo. In spite of the 187.900 point effort, the squad finished in fourth place, behind Missouri (195.250), New Hampshire (192.850), and Towson State (192.650).
The two-day event will continue Saturday night when the Missouri Tigers host the individual championship final. The meet begins at 7 p.m., featuring the top ten competitors from each event during team competition.
The Redbird beam team consists of Amy Biedenharn, Fjordholm, Megan Goetting, Kelly Noonan, Kara Strnad and Lauren Strnad. The six combined for a season-high total of 47.825, led by Fjordholms 9.750. Fjordholm finished in seventh place overall, moving on to Saturdays individual championship final. Kara Strnad also posted high marks, finishing with a personal-best 9.725.
Berezan bested all Illinois State competitors on the floor exercise, turning in a 9.725, for tenth place. She will also compete in Saturdays individual final.
Other top finishers for Illinois State were Carolina Posada, who notched a 9.525 on the vault. Redbird junior Erin Cunningham was the leading scorer on the uneven bars. Cunningham scored 9.550 on the event.
Illinois State head coach Kristin Montero was pleased with her gymnasts who advanced to the finals, as well as her teams overall performance.
Im really happy for Anne and Cheryl, said Montero. It was really great that the two of them are in the finals. We had some really good performance tonight, especially on the beam and the scores were really close. But again, we just had too many falls. The few mistakes we did make were big. We need to be able to put it all together and stick our routines.
Fjordholm and Berezan will represent Illinois State at Saturdays finals of the Callaway Bank Cat Classic in Columbia, Mo. at 7 p.m.
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