Illinois State Brings Home Three Top Honors From MIC Championship Banquet

DENTON, Texas – It was a big night for the Illinois State gymnastics team on Thursday, as the Redbirds took home three of the top awards at the annual Midwest Independent Conference pre-championship banquet. Angelica Labat repeated as the conference's Gymnast of the Year, Alana Laster took home the Newcomer of the Year award, and ISU head coach Bob Conkling was named MIC Coach of the Year in the annual vote.

Labat, the 2021 MIC Gymnast of the Year, did not slow down a bit in 2022 as she earned six Gymnast of the Week honors on way to her repeat as the league's top gymnast. The junior from Chesapeake, Virginia, won the weekly honor four weeks in a row at one point and has posted 10 wins in the all-around overall for the Redbirds.

She tied her career-high score of 39.475 to win the all-around in Illinois State's victory on the road at Southeast Missouri State, matching her best score set last year at the NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional. Heading into the conference championship, she ranks No. 30 in the country in the all-around and has the top National Qualifying Score (NQS) among all MIC gymnasts. Labat also heads into the meet with the highest NQS on vault.

Laster joins Labat (2020) as the only two Redbirds to bring home MIC Newcomer of the Year honors. The freshman from Cape Coral, Florida, made an immediate impact for the Redbirds in her first season winning Newcomer of the Week honors three times and the league's Performance of the Week once.

Laster had a huge night against Southeast Missouri, setting a pair of career bests on way to a third-place finish in the all-around. Her night was highlighted by a pair of scores over 9.900, including her career-best score of 9.950 to win the vault competition. That score is the highest individual score of the season in any event for a Redbird this season. She also added a career-high 9.900 finish on floor to tie for third overall. In the regular season finale, Laster set a career-high with a 39.200 in the all-around to earn MIC Newcomer of the Week honors for the third time and final time. She currently ranks second in the MIC in NQS in the all-around behind her teammate Labat.

In his 17th year at the helm of the Redbird program, Conkling has the Redbirds in position to have one of their best seasons in school history. On February 25 against Southeast Missouri, Conkling helped lead the Redbirds to their season high score of a 195.875, which was the highest team score in his career as ISU's coach and ranks as the third highest score in program history. 

The team's floor score of a 49.325 set in the regular season finale is the highest score he's seen on the event since his start at ISU and ranks third all-time. Not only did the Redbirds score the highest Conkling has seen on floor, but also the highest he's seen on vault, when the Redbirds crushed the previous school vault record by two tenths, scoring 49.350 at the GymQuarters Invitational on March 18.  

Illinois State will look to bring home a conference championship on Friday at the 2022 Midwest Independent Conference Championship hosted by Texas Woman's University. The meet is set to begin at 5 p.m. at Kitty Magee Arena, and links to live results and video are available on the gymnastics schedule page on GoRedbirds.com.

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