ANCHORAGE, Alaska – After picking up a victory in the season opener Friday night, the Illinois State gymnastics squad was edged out in their meet with Alaska Anchorage Sunday at the Alaska Airlines Center by a score of 192.350-189.275.
Redbird Scoring Breakdown:
• Vault: ISU – 48.550, UAA – 47.925
• Bars: UAA – 47.550, ISU – 44.350
• Beam: UAA – 48.250, ISU – 48.025
• Floor: UAA – 48.625, ISU – 48.350
Thoughts from Coach Conkling:
"We had a great off day yesterday and got to spend some time with the UAA team. Today's meet was a quick turnaround and I could tell they were a bit tired and sore from the long travel day Thursday. We warmed up really well and went to bars for the first event and did not perform well at all. We pulled the team together after that event and tried to re-focus them and I thought they had three strong rotations. But, when you give a team a four-point lead to start a meet its really hard to dig out of that hole."
Team Notes:
• ISU struggled on bars and allowed UAA to take the lead in the competition, as the Seawolves did not look back and edged out the Redbirds on the final three events of the evening
• The Redbirds had a great turn on the vault, as they swept the top three spots in the event to finish with a 48.550
Gymnast Notes:
• Junior Gabrielle Cooke won a pair of events once again for the Redbirds and came in second in the all-around competition with a score of 38.325
• Cooke won the floor competition (9.850) for the second time this weekend and tied for the event win on the vault (9.800) with teammate Meredith LaRoche
• Freshman Charlise Doctor was third on the vault (9.725) to help the 'Birds take the top three spots in the event
• Sophomore Savannah Remkus followed a strong performance of 9.725 on beam Friday night with a career-best score of 9.875 Sunday to win the event and post the highest individual score of the night for ISU
Up Next:
• The Redbirds continue their road swing to start the season and travel to Mount Pleasant, Michigan, on Friday, Jan. 11 for a meet at Central Michigan at 7 p.m.
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