March 27, 2008
NORMAL, Ill. -
The Illinois State gymnastics (8-7) regular season is coming to a close this weekend, as the Redbirds travel to Shreveport, La., to compete in the Midwest Independent Conference (MIC) Championship meet. Centenary College will host the five-team event, which will be held Friday, March 28. The first routines are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.
Head coach Bob Conkling feels that his team is prepared for Friday's meet, but they will have to perform excellent routines in order to win.
"Practice went great this week," said Conkling. "We were very pleased with the workouts. The gymnasts are going to have to go into the competition and perform flawless routines. It is a goal of ours to go into the meet and compete well and have no mistakes."
The field for the meet will include ISU, Southeast Missouri, Texas Woman's, Illinois-Chicago and Centenary College.
SEMO is leading the conference, while Texas Woman's is in second place. Illinois-Chicago is in third, while ISU sits in fourth and Centenary College is in fifth place.
Junior co-captain Meaghan Koshman is currently ranked second in the conference on the vault. Koshman has a Regional Qualifying Score (RQS) of 9.840. Senior co-captain Amanda Candler is currently third on the uneven bars with a RQS of 9.760. On the balance beam, freshman Hannah Deutsch has an RQS of 9.800, and is ranked second in the conference. Deutsch is also ranked fifth on the floor routine with a RQS of 9.780.
As a team, the Redbirds are currently in fourth place on the vault and balance beam. They are third on the uneven bars and fifth on the floor routine.
Centenary will be offering a live video stream of the meet on their website, GoCentenary.com. The cost to view the competition is $6.95.
