NORMAL, Ill. – For the second time in as many weeks, the Illinois State gymnastics team has hauled in a pair of weekly conference honors, as Nirel Bart-Williams was named the Midwest Independent Conference Newcomer of the Week and Jaye Mack earned MIC Performance of the Week honors on Wednesday.
The Redbird duo follow their teammates Angelica Labat and Madison Kipp who earned MIC weekly honors a week ago. The honor is the first for Bart-Williams in her young career with Illinois State, and Mack's weekly honor is the fourth of her career overall and second Performance of the Week award.
Bart-Williams put together two more strong all-around performances in the second weekend of competition for Illinois State, as the Redbirds took on Lindenwood and Western Michigan at home. Bart-Williams finished in third place in the all-around twice over the weekend and was the top finisher for the Redbirds all-around in Sunday's win over Western Michigan. She tied for first place on vault in both meets with matching scores of 9.825 and had a pair of second-place finishes on floor over the weekend as well. Her score of 38.575 against Western Michigan tied her career-best and is currently the third-best all-around score in the MIC.
Mack was the closer on floor for the Redbirds in their meets against Lindenwood and Western Michigan. Not only did she put together a pair of top three finishes on vault, including tying for first in the win over Western Michigan, Mack also won twice on the floor for the Redbirds including her season-best score of 9.875 on Friday against Lindenwood. That score is tied for the top score on the event in the MIC this season and is tied for the highest individual score in any event so far in 2023. Her score of 9.850 on Sunday also secured the win for the Redbirds over Western Michigan.
The Redbirds will next head south on I-55 on Saturday, Jan. 21, to take on Greenville in their inaugural college gymnastics season with the meet set to begin at 7 p.m. CT.
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