Jan. 27, 2012
NORMAL, Ill. -
Off to a 2-1 start in head-to-head competitions in 2012, the Illinois State gymnastics will take to the road compete Big Ten Conference opponent Michigan State Saturday, Feb. 28, at 7 p.m. in East Lansing, Mich.
Head coach Bob Conkling is hoping to eliminate some of the weaknesses he observed from his squd in previous meets this season.
"We have been focusing on nailing our routines this week during practice," said Conkling. "We have been working on cleaning up the finer details. We are looking to eliminate any deductions we have seen in previous competitions. Also, we have been just trying to keep the team healthy. We have been resting them a little bit, but at the same time really pushing on the details we felt needed to improve."
The Redbirds are coming off a victory last weekend against Midwest Independent Conference rival Southeast Missouri State, 192.200-186.775, that saw ISU finish first place in all four events. The Redbirds were led by freshman Sami King, who placed first in the all-around competition with a career-high score of 38.600.
Sophomore Elise Gray recorded a first-place finish on the vault, with a personal best score of 9.800 and junior Marissa Stom was victorious on balance beam, posting a career high score of 9.675. Juniors Apollonia Barrientos and Kim Genereux rounded out the dominant effort for the Redbirds against SEMO by tying for first place with a score of 9.675 on the parallel bars.
Illinois State has not faced Michigan State since 2009, when the Spartans posted a 194.200-190.700 victory over the Redbirds. Conkling hopes for a bit of redemption in East Lansing on Saturday.
"I couldn't be more excited about this meet," said Conkling. "We went to Michigan State a few years ago, and we didn't have our best meet. As a team, we are really looking to go into the meet and redeem ourselves. We hope to go four-for-four on the events. I think we will do really well if we can perform all of the routines we are capable of. If we accomplish this, I will be very happy, no matter what the outcome is."
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