The Redbird Gymnasts travel south to meet Greenville for the first time

NORMAL, Ill. Coming off a busy weekend with two home meets last weekend, the Illinois State gymnastics team will travel south on I-55 on Saturday to compete against Greenville, who will be competing in their inaugural varsity gymnastics season. The meet is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m., and will be contested at the Farm Heritage Museum in Greenville.

The Redbirds come into the matchup coming off a win over Western Michigan last Sunday at CEFCU Arena. ISU used a strong performance on floor in the final round to defeat the Broncos 193.875-193.850.

“We look forward to this historic meet as Greenville hosts its first NCAA collegiate gymnastics competition,” ISU head coach Bob Conkling said. “We have been working hard to eliminate deductions this week and are focused on improving our team’s overall points each week. I feel the team is ready and able to achieve that goal in Greenville on Saturday.”

For the second week in a row, ISU handed out a couple of weekly conference awards Nirel Bart-Williams was named Midwest Independent Conference Gymnast of the Week and Jay Mack earned MIC Performance of the Week honors with performances against Lindenwood and Western Michigan.

Bart-Williams finished third in the all-around twice over the weekend and was the top finisher in the Redbirds all-around in Sunday’s win over Western Michigan. She placed first on vault in both meets with corresponding scores of 9.825, and she also placed second on floor over the weekend. Her score of 38.575 against Western Michigan tied her career best and is currently MIC’s third-best all-around score.

Not only did Mack collect a pair of top-three finishes on vault, including a tie in a win over Western Michigan, but she also topped the Redbirds on floor twice, including a season-best 9.875 on Friday against Lindenwood. That score is tied for the best score at an MIC event 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 Redbirds’ win over Western Michigan.

Greenville will host their first home game of the season after competing at Ohio State and Southeast Missouri State over the first two weekends of the season. The Panthers finished fourth out of four teams in Columbus, Ohio, and were third out of three teams last weekend in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

The Panthers scored 180.475 last weekend, falling to Southeast Missouri’s 193.350 and Centenary’s 189.825. Greenville posted a top score of 46.875 on vault to finish second out of three teams, led by Amara Nelson who placed fourth with a 9.650 total.

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