Oct. 5, 2011
NORMAL, Ill. -
The Illinois State gymnastics schedule for the 2012 season was finalized Monday, as announced by head coach Bob Conkling. The Redbirds kick off the season with a home meet against Ball State Sunday, Jan. 8, at 4:00 p.m.
"I'm excited about this season and I think we've got a good schedule," Conkling said. "We start the season with Ball State coming here, then we're going there the following week. That will tell us where we are at with everyone we're going to compete against this year."
The team will compete in two regular-season tournaments with the first being the Illinois Classic, which will be hosted by Illinois March 17, in Champaign, Ill. The second tournament will be the Midwest Independent Conference meet, hosted by Illinois-Chicago, March 24.
ISU will also host five home meets in 2012, including a conference meet against Southeast Missouri State, Saturday, January 21. At that meet, the team and coaches will welcome back graduates from the past years as part of its Alumni Day celebration.
The team will then travel to Eastern Michigan for the second-annual Illinois-Michigan meet in Ypsilanti, Mich., Feb. 3. Illinois State will team up with Illinois-Chicago and compete against Eastern and Central Michigan. The combined scores of the Michigan schools will be put up against the combined scores of the Illinois schools to determine a winner.
"That's always an exciting meet," Conkling said. "Last year, Michigan just beat us but I'm hoping this year that our team can take the title from the Michigan schools."
Conkling added five new members to his team this year, four freshmen and one sophomore transfer from Boise State University.
"We obviously are going to have big concerns when we lose a senior class like we lost, but we're really excited," said Conkling. "We were worried at first losing those big guns that we've had for the past four years, but I really think we're going to be okay. Consistency is always key when we get into competition and the freshman class hasn't competed in the college atmosphere before. Once we get some meets under our belt, we'll have a much better idea of how we're going to do this season. The team is working hard and we're excited to get started."
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