March 17, 2011
NORMAL, Ill. -
The Illinois State gymnastics team will travel to Cape Girardeau, Mo. to take on Southeast Missouri State, Illinois-Chicago, Texas Woman's University and Centenary College, Saturday, March 19 at 2 p.m. CT for the Midwest Independent Conference Championship meet.
Illinois State ranks third in the conference behind SEMO and UIC who are ranked first and second, respectively. Senior Erica Schick is ranked second in the all-around competition. Senior Hannah Deutsch and junior Melissa Mann are ranked second and fourth on the balance beam, respectively. Shick is also ranked fourth on the uneven parallel bars. Deutsch and Schick are both ranked in the top three on the floor exercise, as well.
"I think with conference it is really anyone's game," Conkling said. "Everyone has done well this year, so it should be a good competition."
The Redbirds are coming off a fourth place finish in the State of Illinois meet, which left the team with an abundance of injuries.
Sophomore Apollonia Barrientos took fifth place in her first all-around performance with a score of 38.450. Freshman Elise Gray tied for third on the vault (9.850) and Sophomore Marissa Stom and freshman Jenna Bossle tied for eighth on the vault, scoring 9.750. Deutsch scored 9.825 on the balance beam, good enough to tie for sixth place. Barrientos also took seventh place on the floor exercise (9.750) to lead the Redbirds.
"Our big disadvantage is that so many of our athletes are injured we don't even know line-ups yet," Conkling said.
The KFVS12.com WebCast is scheduled to present the 2011 Midwest Independent Conference Gymnastics Championship meet Saturday afternoon, March 19, live from Houck Field House in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. WebCast coverage of the five-team meet is scheduled to begin at approximately 2:00 p.m. CDT.
The multi-camera WebCast will be presented live around the world at KFVS12.com, and then archived on the web site for users to watch at their convenience. Both the live presentation and the archived version will be available free of charge with no subscription needed. The archived version will be posted shortly after the end of event coverage.
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