Final Home Meet To Honor Redbird Gymnastics Seniors and Alumni

NORMAL, Ill. – The regular season will come to a close for the Illinois State gymnastics team, as the Redbirds will host their final meet of the season before the MIC Championship when they welcome in No. 8 Michigan State and LindeNwood to CEFCU Arena on Saturday, March 16, at 4 p.m.

SETTING THE SCENE
The tri-meet will begin at 4 p.m. at CEFCU Arena and will feature the Redbirds, Spartans and Lions in their final tune-ups before their respective conference championship meets next weekend. The Redbirds will be welcoming back their alumni for an in-meet recognition in addition to honoring their seven seniors in a post meet celebration. 

The event will start with the Redbirds on vault and will follow regular rotations. It will be streamed live on ESPN+ and live results will be available via StatBroadcast on GoRedbirds.com.

THOUGHTS FROM ISU HEAD COACH BOB CONKLING
"We are very excited to welcome in Michigan State and Lindenwood this weekend for the final home meet of the season. There is going to be a lot of emotions in the arena on Saturday, as we welcome back our alumni and then honor our seven seniors after the meet. When you add in the No. 8 team in the country competing and this being Lindenwood's final road meet in program history, each team will have to keep focused and stay in their bubble to make sure they score well headed into the conference championships."

SCOUTING THE REDBIRDS
•    Illinois State has a National Qualifying Score (NQS) of 195.690, which ranks them No. 39 in the latest Road To Nationals rankings. That NQS score is heavily aided by the Redbirds' No. 25 ranking nationally as a team on floor with a 49.310. 
•    The Redbirds are coming off their best performance of the season, as they set a season-high team score of 196.275 last Sunday in the quad meet at San Jose State. That score is the second highest in team history and including a 49.325 on beam, the second-best score on program history.
•    Senior Angelica Labat heads into the meet with the top NQS in the all-around in the MIC at 39.230. She also ranks in the top five on vault (No. 2) and floor (No. 4) heading into the regular-season finale.
•    Junior Jaye Mack tops the MIC rankings on both vault and floor and will look to win her third-straight title on floor next week at the MIC Championship.
•    The Redbirds will honor their seven graduating seniors after today's meet: Isabella DeCroo, Carly Hawksworth, J'Chelle Heard, Reagan Hestermann, Madison Kipp, Jazmine Neely and Angelica Labat.

SCOUTING THE SPARTANS
•    Michigan State has a National Qualifying Score (NQS) of 197.615, which ranks the Spartans No. 8 nationally. The Spartans rank in the top 10 as a team on vault, bars and beam and sit at No. 11 on floor. 
•    In its final regular-season home meet, Michigan State posted a season-high score of 198.150 to win a quad meet with Central Michigan, Fisk and Greenville last Saturday at Jenison Field House. The 198.150 was the second-best score in school history behind the record 198.225 set against Bowling Green and LIU on March 5, 2023.
•    MSU won all four event titles, as well as the all-around, in the quad meet and with the victory, the Spartans improved to 16-3 overall this season. 
•    Junior Skyla Schulte won her second-straight all-around title with a score of 39.575 and has now earned six all-around titles this season.
•    For their efforts in the victory, Schulte collected her third Big Ten Gymnast of the Week award, while freshman MaKayla Tucker won her second Freshman of the Week honor and senior Delanie Harkness was named Event Specialist of the Week.

SCOUTING THE LIONS
•    Lindenwood has a National Qualifying Score (NQS) of 195.570, which ranks them No. 43 just behind the Redbirds in the latest Road To Nationals rankings.
•    The Lions defeated Illinois State on their Senior Day on Feb. 11 by a final score of 196.075-195.250 in their only other meeting of the season.
•    Last Saturday, Lindenwood placed third at the Ameritas Master's Classic hosted by Nebraska. The Lions finished with a score of 196.325, which marked their second highest score of the season behind only a 197.075 set on Jan. 19 at the Tennessee Collegiate Classic.
•    Hannah Appleget and Jaly Jones were the two all-around finishers for the Lions, finishing in sixth and seventh places respectively.  Appleget's score of 39.225 was her highest all-around score of the season and Jones' score was her second highest all-around score of the season. 
•    Hannah Moon was electric on bars posting a career-high mark of 9.925 finishing in second overall during the meet. Moon posted the highest score of any Lindenwood athlete at Nebraska.

FOLLOW US
For all latest on Illinois State gymnastics, stay tuned to Goredbirds.com and follow the team on Instagram (@redbirdgymnastics), on X (@redbirdwgym) and Facebook.

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