Busy Weekend In Missouri Up Next For The Redbirds

ST. CHARLES, Mo. – Coming off a double weekend of meets against Northern Illinois a week ago, Illinois State will be challenged again this weekend with a pair of meets in St. Charles, Missouri, against some tough competition. The Redbirds will compete at the annual GymQuarters Invitational on Friday at the Family Arena against Iowa State, Southeast Missouri and Lindenwood. They will then stay until Sunday to compete in a dual meet at Lindenwood to wrap up the weekend.

"Our confidence should be high after the last few weekends, as we look to continue our improvement at each of the two meets this weekend," ISU head coach Bob Conkling said. "Friday's meet is a quad meet, and we will have to be at our best to come out on top with us competing against three strong teams. Sunday's meet is a dual against Lindenwood, and they have been strong so far this season, so we will have to put in another solid effort to take home the win."

Last weekend, the Redbirds put together a couple of strong performances against in-state for Northern Illinois. On Friday, the Redbirds took care of business at home and picked up a win over the Huskies. Then on Sunday, the Redbirds went to DeKalb and put up a season-high score of 195.250 in a narrow loss to NIU.

For their efforts against NIU, Angelica Labat and Alana Laster were each honored with Midwest Independent Conference weekly awards. Labat was named the MIC Gymnast of the Week for the second time in a row and third time this season, and Laster was named the MIC Newcomer of the Week while also earning the Performance of the Week honor for her career-best 9.925 vault.

Iowa State heads into the meet ranked No. 37 in the latest Road To Nationals ranking. The Cyclones fell to the No. 12 Denver Pioneers by a score of 195.775-196.850 last Sunday to bring their record to 1-4 this spring. The Cyclones saw their best performance of the season on vault and matched their best on beam. Eight gymnasts earned scores of 9.800 or better to propel the team to their second-best overall score of the season.

Lindenwood heads into the meet one spot of ahead of the Redbirds at No. 51 in the Road To Nationals rankings. The Lions beat SEMO in a head-to-head matchup last Friday in Cape Girardeau with a team score of 195.150.  Gayla Griswold took the first-place overall title in vault for the third meet in a row, with a personal best score of 9.900.

In the meet against Lindenwood, the RedHawks captured five individual event titles on way to a team score of 194.100 in their home opener at Houck Field House. Lindsay Ockler won the bars, while Anna Kaziska secured the beam title. Kaziska also tied for first overall on floor with her former club teammate, Madison Greene. Molly Maxwell earned the all-around crown with a 38.200, and Lydia Webb finished as the runner-up with a 37.900.
 
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