March 26, 2010
NORMAL, Ill. - After spending the season preparing, the Illinois State gymnastics team will travel to Denton, Texas, to compete in the Midwest Independent Conference Championship meet Saturday, March 27, at 6 p.m. Along with the Redbirds, the meet will feature Southeast Missouri State, Centenary and Illinois-Chicago.
ISU is ranked second in the conference as a team, behind SEMO. Erica Schick is ranked second in the all-around and on the floor exercise and is first on the uneven bars. The Redbirds hold the top three spots in the conference on the balance beam. Hannah Deutsch is ranked first, followed by Melissa Mann and Andrea Orris. Tori Sarantakis holds the number three spot on the vault.
Head coach Bob Conkling is expecting the team to perform as consistent as they have throughout the season.
"Last week wasn't our best showing, but I expect the team to do really well in the conference championships," Conkling said. "We can't worry about errors from last week, the team just needs to think about how strong and consistent they have been throughout the season."
Last weekend, ISU hosted the State of Illinois Classic and finished fourth behind Illinois, UIC and Northern Illinois with a team score of 191.975. Deutsch led the `Birds in scoring, posting a season-high score of 9.850 on balance beam and 9.825 on the floor exercise. Deutsch and Mann placed first and second place on the balance beam, respectively, to lead ISU and Kim Caron posted career-highs during the meet on the uneven bars (9.775) and floor exercise (9.825).
This meet marks the student-athletes last push to qualify for regionals.
"Erica should have no problem qualifying for regionals in the all around," Conkling said. "It's very close between Hannah and Melissa who will qualify on the balance beam. All the athletes can handle pressure well, so I know they will all perform well and secure high scores."
GoRedbirds.com: Your online source for Illinois State Athletics, tickets, TRC gifts, multimedia, Redbird merchandise, photos and more.
