Jan. 12, 2007
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. -
Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
It was not a typical opening competition for either Illinois State or Central Michigan gymnastics. With two out of four judges absent in Friday's competition, due to a fog in within Chicago, both judges had to score the two teams simultaneously. The Redbird gymnasts fell behind with a score of 180.400 to CMU's 191.075 in the nearly three hour competition.
"I think the girls handled having only two judges pretty well. The scoring was tough throughout the night," head coach Bob Conkling said. "We definitely did not receive any benefits having only two judges there."
An injury in the warm-up session, took sophomore Meaghan Koshman out of competition for the night after she completed one vault. As a representative at the NCAA Regional Meet in 2006, Koshman was slated to compete in the all-around.
"There is no doubt that having Meaghan out of the lineup hurt us a lot," said Conkling. "We had no one to replace her on bars or the floor exercise. We did have Tove Fjordholm step up and replace her on the balance beam."
Although the scores may not have showed it, Conkling believes the floor exercise (45.525) was the best event of the night. A more positive attitude kicked in as the last event of the night took place.
"We had four out of five girls hit their routines on floor," Conkling said. "I felt we should have scored higher with the routines the girls threw tonight. It was not our top event but the girls really turned it around in the end.
Freshmen Lisa Mulchek and Jessica Prousa made their debut for Redbird gymnastics competing in the floor exercise and on the balance beam. Prousa completed her first all-around with a score of 36.400. Veterans and all-arounders, Whitney Albright and Amanda Candler scored a 37.325 and a 34.575 respectively.
"I don't feel the whole lineup gave its best in the events when we needed to the most," Conkling said. "At times we had a couple girls step up. Whitney (Albright) was four for four tonight and made very few mistakes. Jessica (Prousa) had a solid meet and Carolina Posada had a really good meet as well."
The Redbirds will host their first home meet against SEMO, Centenary and Illinois-Chicago on Friday, January 19 at 7:00 p.m. in Horton Field House.
