Women’s gymnastics: Women travel south to Texas

By Majesh Abraham

The women’s gymnastics team finally ends its three-week road trip, but it has to travel to Denton, Texas to do so. The No. 22 Illini will fly in to take on Air Force, Centenary and host Texas Women’s University on Saturday.

The team is coming off a road upset over No. 23 Michigan State and looks to end its road trip on a good note.

“It will be a little bit further than we usually travel,” said head coach Bob Starkell. “We want to make ourselves more visible to judges around the country; Texas is one of the large recruiting states, so hopefully we become more visible down there for student prospects.”

The outlook for an Illini victory looks good as the other three teams have struggled so far this season. Air Force has only one win over TWU in the season opener and is coming off a loss at Arizona State last week.

Centenary (4-5 overall) has had some success this season, but is coming off a third-place finish in a quad meet against Oklahoma, Missouri and TWU.

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Texas Women’s has only one win on the season. It has already lost to both Centenary and Air Force once.

“Texas might be our toughest challenge, it being a home meet for them,” Starkell said. “In the past they have competed well at home, they’re well coached, and, being a mid-major program, they would love to upset a Big Ten team.”

The Illini are looking to build on the momentum gained from last week’s victory over the Spartans. The meet was dominated by the seniors, who won three of the team’s four event titles. Senior Ashley Williams won the all-around for the first time this season, setting season highs on bars and floor along the way. She will compete in the all-around competition again this week replacing senior Lauren Newcomb because of injury.

“Ashley’s a confidence person, and last week helped her out tremendously,” Starkell said. “We want her to build on last week because we feel she still has room for improvement.”

Newcomb, who won the vault title last weekend, will sit out the all-around to rest her knees. She will only compete on vault, beam and bars. Senior co-captain Kara Kapernekas continued a strong season by taking home her third beam title of the season.

Not to be overlooked, sophomore Cara Pomeroy won her second bars title in a row, and should contend for that title this week.

“Hopefully [Cara] doesn’t try to change what she’s doing,” Starkell said. “She puts a lot of pressure on herself to do well for the team. We’re trying to get her more confident on the beam; on bars it’s so hard for judges to deduct points on her routine, we’re looking for her to duplicate the perfect score she had last year.”

While they may not have won titles, the rest of the team contributed greatly. Senior co-captain Margaret Dann and junior Katie Wild tied for second and both recorded season highs on the floor. Freshman Krystal Melcarek received the first top-three finish of her career on beam.

“Our confidence is a little bit stronger because we’re coming off a good road win and performing well in practice also,” Starkell said. “It will all tell once we get into the gym, but as a whole our group is looking strong and feeling more confident in themselves and their ability.”