Women’s gymnastics has reeled off four straight victories to finish the season and carry the momentum into the Illinois Classic this Saturday.

The team travels to Chicago to defend their title against Illinois State, Northern Illinois and Illinois-Chicago in the annual meet that matches up the women’s gymnastics teams from the state. The Illini come in as the favorites after ending their regular season last week with a fourth consecutive win against Ohio State.

“We are ranked higher than the other teams, but from prior experience this meet has always been a dogfight,” head coach Bob Starkell said.

The Illini have already won against all three of the teams this season. They beat Illinois State back on Jan. 8, Illinois-Chicago on Feb. 5 and NIU just a couple weeks ago on March 6.

“(Illinois-Chicago) has always put up the biggest battle, and before last year at the Classic they beat us for three years,” Starkell said. “Hopefully, it’s not a let down for us, and we’re overconfident coming off a big win at home and the emotions are flat.”

That win was a dominant victory for the team as an Illini gymnast won all five of the individual titles. The team improved its record to 16-4 on the season, and 2-2 in the Big Ten. Redshirt co-captain Kara Kapernekas won the floor and tied with sophomore Cara Pomeroy for first on beam. Along with the beam title, Pomeroy took home her sixth bars title of the season – third in a row. Senior Lauren Newcomb rounded it out with her fifth all-around title and her fifth vault title.

“With Kara and Lauren, they’re seniors and starting to shine at the right time,” Starkell said. “In Pomeroy’s position, she’s an excellent gymnast and at the events she competes in, she can compete with anybody. Those three are hitting at such a good level now that the team can feel confident and try to follow them. During competition most of the time those three lead by example.”

Pomeroy’s great season has moved her to seventh on bars in the national rankings. The team has also been impressive, but failed to get national attention and hasn’t registered in the top 25 of the national rankings. They are currently ranked 33rd.

“I feel like a lot of other schools get high home scoring and low scores on the road,” junior Emily Earle said. “We actually score better on the road, so if we had better home scores we would be in the top 25, and I feel that we deserve to be.”

Newcomb is back in the all-around, freshman Michelle McGrady is fully recovered from her broken ankle and Kapernekas is showing no effects of her shoulder injury. Now the line up envisioned at the beginning of the season is coming together.

“It makes things more consistent, and with a stressful sport like gymnastics, the objective is to hit 100 percent,” Starkell said. “A consistent line up and having your strongest performers on the floor gives you a much higher confidence level going into each competition.”

The team has gelled, winning two consecutive road meets followed by two home meets and is looking to make an impact in the post-season. The Classic is a small step to reaching that goal, but they’re not looking past it to the Big Ten Championships.

“We’ve gained the confidence to carry us into the rest of the season, and it’s really exciting to go into a meet and know you’re going to do good,” senior Jessica Cole said. “You still take it one meet at a time, because there’s always upsets. The underdog wants it, if not more than the team that’s favored to win. You’ve got to concentrate on the task at hand and not look too far ahead.”