Jan. 24, 2008
NORMAL, Ill. -
The Illinois State gymnastics team will travel to Cape Girardeau, Mo., on Fri., January 25 to take on host Southeast Missouri State. The meet is set to begin at 7 p.m., and is the first Midwest Independent Conference (MIC) meet for both teams.
Last season, SEMO and ISU split their regular season meets. Both teams enter Friday's meet with an undefeated record. The Redbirds are 2-0, while the Redhawks are 1-0.
Head coach Bob Conkling is confident that his team will perform its routines flawlessly. They have worked hard in practice all week in a competition style practice. Conkling hopes this will help calm the team's nerves and keep its consistency for Friday's meet. The athletes realize that consistency is their biggest issue and are working hard to fix it.
"In practice, we went back to the basics and cleaned up our technique," said Conkling. "We put the team under pressure like in competition and practice has gone well this week. I am looking forward to see if their work pays off on Friday like it should."
Conkling feels that the gymnasts need to be confident and consistent in their events at Friday's meet to succeed as a team.
"The athletes need to stick their routines on Friday," said Conkling. "It is a team effort all the way around the meet."
SEMO is ranked first in Team Totals in the MIC with 192.625, out-scoring the third ranked Redbirds, who have a score of 191.037. As a team, SEMO tops two events, while Illinois State tops one.
