For the first time since 1999, the women’s gymnastics team heads to regional competition in back-to-back years. Last year, the goal was just making it to regionals. This year the goal is to move on to nationals.

“Last year, we probably performed better than we expected,” said head coach and Big Ten Coach of the Year Bob Starkell. “Hopefully this year, we will find a way to use this opportunity to have the athletes know that they have a shot at making the national championship finals.”

The No. 33 Illini will be heading to Lincoln, Neb., and will compete as the sixth-seed in the tough, south central regional tomorrow night. The regional includes host team and powerhouse No. 6 Nebraska, Big Ten Tournament champion No. 8 Michigan, No. 18 Arizona, No. 19 Missouri and No. 29 Arizona State.

“I would say this regional is either the strongest region to compete in or second,” Starkell said. “In my eyes, it is the toughest regional to compete in.”

The Illini will be looking for big performances from their first team All-Big Ten member, sophomore Cara Pomeroy, and second team All-Big ten members, seniors Lauren Newcomb and Kara Kapernekas. Pomeroy will be looking to repeat her success from last year’s regionals, where she received a perfect score of 10.0 on bars and took home the regional bar title.

Pomeroy has moved on to another level this season, winning ten event titles – seven on bars – which has placed her No.7 nationally in the individual bar rankings.

“Cara’s going to have some tough competition this weekend. She’s going against a former NCAA bar champion and a former NCAA All-Around champion,” Starkell said. “We’ve been trying to make her bars routine more unique compared to other people, so she stands out more to judges. Hopefully, she’ll just keep on doing what she’s been doing, and she’ll be able contend with those individuals.”

A unique quality of this team is the large number of seniors and the experience they bring, but the team will need to rely on more than just the seniors doing well this weekend.

“We’re really looking for an all-around team effort here, and hopefully, we’ll carry ourselves as a whole, instead of the seniors just leading us,” Starkell said.

The team will be playing the underdog role with all the tough teams in this regional, but it is a role they accept and relish.

“We want to upset some teams, and it’s always in the back of our heads that we are the underdogs,” said sophomore Danye Botterman. “This is the meet where we go out there and look to have the most fun, and that’s when you perform the best.”

The underdog mentality also serves well in that it lessens the pressure on the team, and they are hoping that it will lead to a great performance.

“Everybody’s been really looking forward to this weekend,” Newcomb said. “We’ve been really working hard the last two weeks, knowing that this could be the last meet of the season. We just want to go out there and hit everything like we know how to do and show everybody what Illinois gymnastics is all about.”