NORMAL, Ill. – It is shaping up to be a very busy weekend for the Illinois State gymnastics team this weekend, as the Redbirds have a pair of meets on the schedule against opponents from all over the country.
The Redbirds begin the weekend at the GymQuarters Invitational, set to begin at 6 p.m. Friday night at the Family Arena in St. Charles, Missouri. The 'Birds will be competing against some familiar foes in Ball State and Southeast Missouri State and will also see Midwest Independent Conference foe Lindenwood for the first time. Eastern Michigan and Air Force round out the exciting field in the biggest meet of the year for the 'Birds.
ISU will then take a day off before returning to the mats on Sunday at Lindenwood for a 2 p.m. matchup with the Lions.
"We are excited to compete in a pair of meets this weekend," ISU head coach Bob Conkling said. "This six team meet on Friday features some teams we've already competed against and some that we haven't seen yet but are familiar with having competed against them in the past few years. We will have most of our team back to compete, which should allow us more options and if we hit our routines, we should be able to post some good team scores this weekend."
The Redbirds picked up their first win of the young season last Saturday against SEMO, 192.075-190.925, inside historic Horton Field House. Trailing after the first rotation, ISU fought back to take a slight lead heading into the fourth and final rotation of the day. A strong effort by the 'Birds on floor with a team score of 48.575 helped them pull away from the Redhawks for the victory.
Angelica Labat (38.775) and Isabelle Fox (38.725) both posted strong efforts in the all-around, with Labat narrowly edging her teammate Fox out for the win. The Redbirds also took the top four spots on vault, with J'Chelle Heard picking up the event win with a 9.725. Fox posted the top score on beam of 9.775 to win the event and Cameron Topp picked up the win on floor with a 9.750.
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