TOWSON, Md. – With the regular season just past the halfway point, Illinois State gymnastics heads to the East Coast this weekend to Maryland, where the Redbird will compete against host Towson, Bowling Green and William & Mary in the George McGinty Alumni Quad Meet on Saturday, Feb. 8, at 4 p.m. CT.
SETTING THE SCENE
The meet will be the first of the season for Towson at TU Arena, however the start time was changed from the original 6 p.m. start to a 4 p.m. start due to expected inclement weather in the area Saturday night. The meet will be broadcast on YouTube Live and live stats will be made available via StatBroadcast.
THOUGHTS FROM ISU HEAD COACH BOB CONKLING
"This meet should be a tight competition between all the schools. Towson could be our strongest competition, since they are ranked so close to us, but Bowling Green is on the rise and had their best team score last weekend. I'm looking forward to having another quad competition and I'm sure it will come down to which team hits their routines on all four events for the win."
SCOUTING ILLINOIS STATE
• ISU currently ranks No. 34 in the country as a team in the latest Road To Nationals rankings and sit at No. 22 in the national floor rankings and No. 27 on the vault.
• The Redbirds head into the meet as winners of three-straight dual meets, with a pair of wins over Northern Illinois and one over MIC foe Southeast Missouri State in just over eight days a week ago.
• Seniors Mya Robinson and Jaye Mack were each instrumental in the Redbirds picking up a pair of dual-meet wins last week and for their efforts, the duo earned Midwest Independent Conference weekly honors with Robinson earning MIC Gymnast of the Week honors and Mack taking home MIC Performance of the Week.
• Robinson took home a pair of all-around wins for the Redbirds last week, as she posted a career best on floor with a 9.850 to help her score 38.825 to take the top spot in the all-around competition against NIU. She followed that up with another win in the all-around on the road at SEMO, as she scored 38.575 thanks to a second-place finish on vault.
• Mack was solid once again for the Redbirds, as she tied for first or second place on five of her six events competed in during the two meets. However, it was her vault performance at SEMO that was one for the record books as she took first place overall with a personal-best score of 9.925. That score is the highest individual score of the season for the Redbirds and the highest individual score for any MIC gymnast so far in 2025.
SCOUTING TOWSON
• Towson is ranked at No. 38 in the latest Road To Nationals rankings, thanks to a No. 26 ranking as a team on bars.
• TU is the two-time defending East Atlantic Gymnastics League (EAGL) Tournament champion, the league's first repeat champion since North Carolina won in 2010 and 2011.
• The Tigers are coming off a pair of second place finishes last week, including placing second in a five-team meet at Temple on Feb. 2 with a score of 195.375.
• Eight returners to Towson's roster earned a combined 10 All-EAGL selections last season, headlined by 2024 WCGA First Team All-American Isabella Minervini, who had a 9.960 NQS on the bars, and Retoshia Halsell, the 2024 EAGL Rookie of the Year after being First Team All-EAGL on vault and floor.
SCOUTING BOWLING GREEN
• Bowling Green is ranked No. 58 in the nation per Road to Nationals, with event rankings of No. 46 on vault and No. 49 on floor.
• BGSU narrowly fell to Ball State last Sunday, as the Falcons notched their best score of the season at 194.775.
• Several Falcons enjoyed personal records and season highs, highlighted by Megan Bingham's 39.075 in the All-Around, which is tied for the fourth-best score in the MAC this season.
• BGSU's 48.825 on vault and 48.350 on beam were its best team scores in the events this season.
SCOUTING WILLIAM & MARY
• William & Mary comes in at No. 64 nationally on Road To Nationals, and is No. 55 on beam No. 56 on bars.
• After posting a season-high 192.850 at the Towson Invite last weekend, W&M enters Saturday's meet ranked sixth in the GEC with a 191.417 team average. The Tribe's best event has been bars where it ranks third in the conference (47.800), while it is fourth in the league on beam (48.225).
• Individually, a trio of Tribe standouts rank among the GEC's top five on beam: Melanie Faulkner (3rd, 9.733), Summer Penzi (T5th, 9.700) and Michelle Ngo (T5th, 9.700).
For all latest on Illinois State gymnastics, stay tuned at GoRedbirds.com and follow the team on Instagram (@redbirdgymnastics), on X (@redbirdwgym) and Facebook.
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