Jan. 28, 2009
NORMAL, Ill. -
Coming off its first win against Bowling Green, the Illinois State women's gymnastics team (1-2) will head to California for two meets this weekend. The Redbirds take on the Sacramento State Hornets (1-2) Friday at 9 p.m. CST and then take on the University of California Golden Bears (0-3) Sunday at 2 p.m. CST.
Head coach Bob Conkling is expecting tough competition this weekend in California, but is confident that after a week of great practice the Redbirds will hit their routines and score big.
"On Friday we are competing against Sacramento State which has proven to be a pretty good team so far this season," said Conkling. "It is always a harder meet when you go further from home because these teams have different scoring techniques. As for Cal, I think we will do really well. They are having an off-season this year and haven't been scoring extremely well. Throughout the week, in practice, the girls have been preparing really hard and they look amazing. I am anticipating really great scores out of the girls this weekend."
According to the GymInfo polls, the Redbirds are ranked No. 45 in the country in team totals.
In Friday's meet against Bowling Green, the Redbirds scored a 191.675 which was enough to give the `Birds their first win of the season. During this meet, the Redbirds also captured their highest vault score (48.425) of Conkling's four-year tenure at Illinois State.
Three Redbird gymnasts are leading the Midwest Independent Conference in individual events. Senior co-captain Meaghan Koshman leads the conference in the vault routine with an average score of 9.833. Sophomore Hannah Deutsch averages a score of 9.737 on the balance beam and a 9.694 for her floor routine, putting her at the top of both events. Sophomore Robin Weissman is ranked in the top-10 in the conference on the uneven bars with an average of 9.687.
The double-meet this weekend is the first time the Redbirds have competed twice in one weekend all season.
"I think the girls are going to do really well at this meet," said Conkling. "They are aware of how tough it is going to be to compete twice in one weekend, but they are up for the challenge. I think these meets could be two of our strongest all season."
