FORT WORTH, Texas – The Illinois State gymnastics program has quite the challenge ahead of it this weekend in Texas, as the Redbirds will be paired up with No. 4 Utah, No. 18 Georgia and No. 22 Illinois on Saturday at the Metroplex Challenge held at the Fort Worth Convention Center in Fort Worth, Texas. The Redbirds will compete in the afternoon session beginning at 2 p.m., before sticking around to watch the evening session which features four top-25 teams in No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 11 Alabama, No. 16 Arkansas and No. 24 Stanford.
"What a great opportunity this is for our program, to compete against some of the best college teams in the nation," ISU head coach Bob Conkling said. "I feel we have improved this week on each of the events, but especially on vault. The team's confidence is high so heading into the meet coming off a season-high score, so now it's time to show just how good we are by putting together a strong performance on all four events."
The Redbirds are coming off a tri-meet win last Friday at home against MIC foe Centenary and Bowling Green. ISU posted great rotations on bars and floor which resulted in the Redbirds posting a season-best score of 195.200. It was the first 195-plus point performance of the season for the Redbirds, who has scored 194-plus in each of their previous three meets before the win last week.
ISU was led by senior Angelica Labat, who was named the MIC Gymnast of the Week for her performance in the tri-meet victory. After a slow start on vault, Labat rallied in a big way to win the next three events of the night and capped it off with a career-high score of 9.900 to take home the title on floor. The event wins on bars, beam and floor helped her pick up an all-around title with a score of 39.125. It marked her third-straight all-around win in as many meets and gave her back-to-back 39 point plus performances. Freshman Nirel Bart-Williams was the other event winner in the meet for the Redbirds, as she won on vault with a career-best score 9.825.
Utah heads into the meet ranked fourth in the nation row and just recorded its first 198 of the season, downing Pac-12 rival UCLA 198.200-197.450. Behind a Perfect 10 from Maile O'Keefe, Utah matched its school record on beam (49.775) and also posted a season high on bars (49.575) to remain undefeated in Pac-12 action. Grace McCallum posted a season-high 39.750 in the all-around for the Utes, which was just 0.025 shy of tying a career high.
Georgia heads into the meet ranked No. 18, after suffering a tough loss at LSU last Friday, 197.700-196.925, at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. In that meet, four GymDogs received season-high scores and two more matched their best of 2023 as senior Haley de Jong vaulted to a season-high 9.850, while freshman Jacquie Moran and graduate Josie Angeny notched season-high scores on beam of 9.925 and 9.900, respectively.Â
The Illini dropped two spots to No. 22 in the Road To Nationals rankings, following a tight loss to Big Ten rival No. 19 Minnesota 196.675-195.775 last Minnesota Saturday evening. Illinois was led by Mia Takekawa and Olivia O'Donnell on bars, both earning scores of 9.8, and Ward also led the Illini on vault, scoring a 9.825. Takekawa took home the beam title, scoring a 9.925 with Amelia Knight and Ruthuja Nataraj right behind her with a 9.850, and Mia Townes was the highest Illini scorer on floor, securing a 9.875 with Takekawa securing a 9.8 with her routine.
FORT WORTH, Texas – The Illinois State gymnastics program has quite the challenge ahead of it this weekend in Texas, as the Redbirds will be paired up with No. 4 Utah, No. 18 Georgia and No. 22 Illinois on Saturday at the Metroplex Challenge held at the Fort Worth Convention Center in Fort Worth, Texas. The Redbirds will compete in the afternoon session beginning at 2 p.m., before sticking around to watch the evening session which features four top-25 teams in No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 11 Alabama, No. 16 Arkansas and No. 24 Stanford.
"What a great opportunity this is for our program, to compete against some of the best college teams in the nation," ISU head coach Bob Conkling said. "I feel we have improved this week on each of the events, but especially on vault. The team's confidence is high so heading into the meet coming off a season-high score, so now it's time to show just how good we are by putting together a strong performance on all four events."
The Redbirds are coming off a tri-meet win last Friday at home against MIC foe Centenary and Bowling Green. ISU posted great rotations on bars and floor which resulted in the Redbirds posting a season-best score of 195.200. It was the first 195-plus point performance of the season for the Redbirds, who has scored 194-plus in each of their previous three meets before the win last week.
ISU was led by senior Angelica Labat, who was named the MIC Gymnast of the Week for her performance in the tri-meet victory. After a slow start on vault, Labat rallied in a big way to win the next three events of the night and capped it off with a career-high score of 9.900 to take home the title on floor. The event wins on bars, beam and floor helped her pick up an all-around title with a score of 39.125. It marked her third-straight all-around win in as many meets and gave her back-to-back 39 point plus performances. Freshman Nirel Bart-Williams was the other event winner in the meet for the Redbirds, as she won on vault with a career-best score 9.825.
Utah heads into the meet ranked fourth in the nation row and just recorded its first 198 of the season, downing Pac-12 rival UCLA 198.200-197.450. Behind a Perfect 10 from Maile O'Keefe, Utah matched its school record on beam (49.775) and also posted a season high on bars (49.575) to remain undefeated in Pac-12 action. Grace McCallum posted a season-high 39.750 in the all-around for the Utes, which was just 0.025 shy of tying a career high.
Georgia heads into the meet ranked No. 18, after suffering a tough loss at LSU last Friday, 197.700-196.925, at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. In that meet, four GymDogs received season-high scores and two more matched their best of 2023 as senior Haley de Jong vaulted to a season-high 9.850, while freshman Jacquie Moran and graduate Josie Angeny notched season-high scores on beam of 9.925 and 9.900, respectively.Â
The Illini dropped two spots to No. 22 in the Road To Nationals rankings, following a tight loss to Big Ten rival No. 19 Minnesota 196.675-195.775 last Minnesota Saturday evening. Illinois was led by Mia Takekawa and Olivia O'Donnell on bars, both earning scores of 9.8, and Ward also led the Illini on vault, scoring a 9.825. Takekawa took home the beam title, scoring a 9.925 with Amelia Knight and Ruthuja Nataraj right behind her with a 9.850, and Mia Townes was the highest Illini scorer on floor, securing a 9.875 with Takekawa securing a 9.8 with her routine.
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