The long flight to Denton, Texas, couldn’t slow the women’s gymnastics team, as it placed first in the Texas Women’s University Quad meet to win its second consecutive road meet. The No. 22 Illini, with a score of 195.750, topped Centenary (194.300), Texas Women’s University (191.125) and Air Force (189.650) as they improved to 12-4 on the season.

“As a team, we’re pretty excited because we accomplished our goal of putting all the routines together and coming up with a good team score,” said head coach Bob Starkell. “I knew if we did that, the win was going to come.”

The Illini also set a new school record for vault with a team score of 49.100, surpassing the mark of 49.000 set last year.

“Vault’s been an ongoing project for the last five years,” Starkell said. “I was pleasantly surprised with the collective score. I see their potential in practice, but it’s a different thing to carry it into a road meet. We had everything going for us Saturday.”

Senior Lauren Newcomb led the team in vault and tied for first with a score of 9.875 to win her second straight vault title. Sophomore Danye Botterman also set a season-high score for vault with a 9.850 to finish second.

“Lauren’s been dealing with nagging knee injuries and her talent on vault shows because she still comes out and wins,” Starkell said. “Danye put forth a great effort with three season-highs for her, and it is a good sign, because this is the time where you want the girls to be performing close to their highest level.”

Sophomore Cara Pomeroy had a big night, winning her second bars title in a row – and her sixth of the season – with a season-high score of 9.950. She also took home the beam title with a score of 9.850.

“Cara each week is getting more confident with her skills,” Starkell said. “She excels at (bars and beam), so we kind of expect this from her now, and it just came together for her on those two events.”

The Illini seem to have hit their stride following a couple of down weeks, winning two tough road meets in a row.

“I’m delighted that we’re finding good results from our freshmen,” Starkell said. “We knew they were talented, but we didn’t know how much the lack of college experience would affect them in meets.

“Krystal Melcarek has been stepping up in spots where our upperclassmen needed rest; it is key for any team to have people who are ready to come off the bench and provide a good score.”

The Illini will finally be home for the first time in four weeks when they take on Northern Illinois Saturday at Huff Hall.

“We’re really excited; we knew we could do well, but it’s good to see us putting it all together at the meet,” said senior co-captain Kara Kapernekas. “It gives us a lot of confidence coming into the two last meets at home.”