Jan. 12, 2006
NORMAL, Ill. -
After claiming victories over Wisconsin-La Crosse and Winona State, the Illinois State gymnastics team prepares for their next competition at Kentucky on Saturday, January 14. Joining the Redbirds in Lexington, Ky., will be fellow Midwest Independent Conference school, Southeast Missouri State.
The three teams will square off in what Kentucky has billed "Excite Nite" at 6 p.m. in Memorial Coliseum. The 23rd annual event serves as the home opener for the Wildcats, who are currently ranked No. 13 in the nation. The Cats opened their 2006 campaign last weekend with a convincing win over Michigan State.
Southeast Missouri State defeated the Redbirds in all three meetings last season, going on to finish fourth at the MIC Championships last March.
During the `Birds first meet, only five gymnasts were able to compete on vault due to injuries. In this Saturday's competition, according to Illinois State head coach Bob Conkling, similar circumstances hold true on the uneven bars as well as the vault.
"We have been doing really well this past week training for the meet," said Conkling. "There have been a couple of setbacks with injuries and illness, but we will overcome them. Having only five girls on vault and bars is unfortunate because we can't throw a score out, but I am also confident that we have five great gymnasts on these two events."
Coach Conkling sees both Kentucky and Southeast Missouri State to be very tough competition.
"I am interested to see how our scores from the first meet compare to this one," said Conkling. "Although we are in foreign territory, the girls are all confident and ready to go."
Junior Whitney Albright and Cheryl Berezan, a sophomore, will again be the two all-around competitors for the Redbirds. However, because Illinois State will be a visiting school, the different order of events (beam, floor, vault and bars) could affect the all-arounders most, since they compete in all four events.
Conkling says the team has practiced these events in the order in which they will take place in Kentucky.
"Since these are my first meets ever with this team, going to Kentucky will tell me a lot about them," said Conkling. "In practice, we have been trying to clean things up a bit, become more consistent and try to work on what it takes to gain those extra tenths here and there to raise our team totals."
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