Jan. 9, 2009
Complete Results
MOUNT PLEASENT, Mich. -
The Illinois State gymnastics team (0-2) performed well on three of the four events, but fell behind Central Michigan on the balance beam. In their first away meet, the Redbirds fell to the Chippewas 191.825-192.225 at Rose Arena. It was the second consecutive loss for the Redbirds.
Head Coach Bob Conkling was proud the way his team performed at Central Michigan. He thought they did a good job fixing their mistakes from last Sunday's meet against SEMO.
"I thought we did good at the meet, but not great," said Conkling. "There were a few things throughout every event that we could have done better on. We are still improving as a team."
The Redbirds finished their vault set with their highest score of the night, 48.300. Senior, Meaghan Koshman took second overall on the vault with a score of 9.825.
The gymnasts struggled to stick their floor routines and fell to Central Michigan in the event with a score of 48.000. Sophomore Hannah Deutsch was the only Redbird to place in the top three with a score of 9.775.
Conkling feels that the team needs to build their confidence level up on their floor routines. The team did not compete well on the event for the last two meets.
"I think we need to get our floor routines together if we went to win," said Conkling. "We need to place better in this event if we want to go to regionals."
On the uneven bars the Redbirds posted their lowest score of the night a 47.550. However, Sophomore Robin Weissman placed second overall in the event and scored a new career-best 9.800.
"I was very proud of Robin," said Conkling. "She is doing a great job for the team and really stepped up today on the bars when we needed her to."
After three events ISU was tied with Central Michigan at 143.825. However, on their final event of the evening, the balance beam the Redbirds lost their momentum and dropped a 47.975 while CMU tallied a 48.400 in their last event of the evening. The Redbirds still managed to place two gymnasts in the top three. Freshman, Melissa Mann won the event with a 9.800, while Deutsch took second with a 9.775.
Illinois State will travel to East Lansing, Mich., Saturday Jan. 17, 2009 to compete against Michigan State, Iowa, and West Virginia. The meet begins at 7:30 p.m.
